CATHOLIC Church officials are privately admitting that up to 11,000 bodies may be buried  at the Bog Meadows nature reserve.

At first it was thought the figure was in the hundreds, however the projected number has now soared to 11,000.

The bodies ended up in the Bog Meadows after Church leaders blundered and sold land at Milltown Cemetery that contained unmarked graves to the Ulster Wildlife Trust.

The graves are now cut off from the cemetery by a wooden fence and are part of the Bog Meadows. Relatives of infants buried there are campaigning for the land to be reallocated to Milltown.

However the Catholic Church, which has apologised for the mix-up, has still not secured its return.

After reading about the scandal in the Andersonstown News last month, Rosemary White learned her daughter is one of the Bog Meadows babies.

Little Anne White was just a day old when she died in March 1964. She was buried in  Milltown on land that is now a car-park.

Last week Rosemary, who now lives in Bushmills, was told the exact location of her child’s grave. After making the disturbing discovery she has joined with others in calling on the Catholic Church to reclaim the land.

“I have been told by Church officials that there are 11,000 graves in the Bog Meadows,” explained Rosemary.

“I feel totally let down by the Church. I was crying when I was told where my daughter is buried. The land has to be returned.”

West Belfast woman Eileen Strong first stumbled across the Bog Meadows baby scandal while trawling through old cemetery records last April.  The grave of her son, Stephen, is among those now in the nature reserve.

She said: “When I first spoke out about this in April I was called a liar, but now I have been proved right. The Church should do the decent thing and reclaim the land where the babies are buried.”

A Catholic Church spokesman said it wants to resolve the matter “as soon as possible”.

A spokesman for the Ulster Wildlife Trust says it has spoken to the relatives of the Bog Meadows babies and is awaiting maps that are currently being looked for by Milltown Cemetery officials.