Some 1,800 new plots in Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery will go on sale next month and will range in price from 1,500, although the majority will sell for up to 4,000.

A further 1,000 new graves will come on stream in six months.

The shortage of grave space and the high demand for burials has forced the Dublin Cemeteries Commission (DCC) to reclaim three acres of land previously used as a dumping ground before the 1960s.

It is estimated that the remains of up to 3,000 unidentified children dating back to the 1800s are buried over a portion of the site. The majority of these are children who were laid to rest in the poor ground plot or "Angel Plot".

The charity has cleaned out the site of rubbish and laid foundations for the graves which have been landscaped and are nearly ready to go on sale.

A special landscaped garden has been erected in remembrance of those buried in the poor ground and a cross that originally marked the area was discovered during the clean-out and has now been restored.

Once the new plots are filled, there will be no further space left. Graves at Glasnevin Cemetery have been recycled for over 20 years, a practice commonplace around Europe.

Some 1,200 people are laid to rest on the 120-acre site annually.

DCC chief George McCullagh said that the new plots will be over old burial ground purely for space reasons.

"If anybody wants to buy them we will say to them, 'Yes, there were old burials in this area.' But there will be other choices there as well, " he said.

The high cost of land around the capital has influenced the increasing popularity of cremations and, at around 500, they cost far less than burials.

Over 2,000 people were cremated at Glasnevin cemetery last year.