During Ireland’s ferocious winter storms of 2015 a 215-year-old beech tree was uprooted by the powerful winds that ripped through the town of Collooney, County Sligo. Had it not we would have never known of the tragedy upon which the tree had grown. 
Enmeshed in the tangled roots of a tree was a medieval skeleton. The upper part of the body was entangled in the roots, severed from the legs which remained in the ground.
Radiocarbon analysis determined the bones to be those of a young man between the ages of 17 and 20, who died sometime between A.D. 1030 and 1200. It was a violent death; several deep gouges were observed on his ribs and defensive wounds on his hands.
As he was denied burial on consecrated land he is likely to have been the victim of a brutal crime, the evidence of which lay undiscovered for 900 years.
The unknown man was given a formal Christian burial in the village.
The unknown man was given a formal Christian burial in the village.
