2002:0708 - BALLINASLOE: Creagh Junction, Galway

An excavation was carried out at Creagh Junction, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, from 14 to 27 August 2002. The proposed development entails improvement of the junction between the R357 Ballinasloe– Athleague Road and the N6 Galway–Dublin Road.

The site lies between St Brigid’s Hospital, formerly the Ballinasloe and District Lunatic Asylum, and the ruined Creagh church on the eastern side of the Athleague Road, in an area that was formerly part of the hospital grounds. During initial groundworks in 2001, human skeletal remains were uncovered, and, as a result, testing was carried out (Excavations 2001, No. 488). A total of 71 grave-cuts were observed, and a further 21 possible inhumations were evident on-site or in the section faces of trenches already dug. Galway County Council redesigned the proposed development in order to avoid the known burials.

During construction works associated with the road in August 2002, a number of burial cuts and inhumations were exposed to the west of the area where the main concentration of skeletal remains had been observed during earlier testing. After discussion with Dúchas, and given the advanced stage of construction works, full excavation of a strip at the eastern side of the road was undertaken.

Twelve skeletons in varying states of preservation were excavated. It is clear from the plan of the cuts that the graves formed two regular north–south rows. Only one phase of burials was apparent. This carefully laid out graveyard concurs with the findings from test-trenches opened in the south-eastern corner of the grounds in December 2001, where several distinct rows were distinguished. In contrast, trenches opened at the very east, close to the present boundary, revealed cross-cutting graves at different levels, implying that more than one phase was present.

It is clear that the present church ruin, which, according to Egan (1960, 27), is no older than the 18th century, is built on a small rise or mound that is likely to be older. It was suggested in the testing report that the Athleague Road, which divides the hospital grounds and church, was a road improvement that cut the western edge of this mound, isolating a strip to the west of the road, which later became part of the hospital grounds. If medieval or post-medieval burials were known to exist at this corner of the hospital grounds, it would have been an obvious step to continue its use for burial and, over time, to expand the graveyard to the west. The earliest known map showing the junction in detail is in Taylor and Skinner’s Maps of the roads of Ireland of 1777, which shows the layout as it is today. Such a road improvement would therefore have to be earlier than this.

White-glazed and decorated 19th- or early 20th-century ceramic was found in several of the grave fills, but there is little evidence to date the graves more accurately. If the above hypothesis concerning the former curtilage of Creagh church is correct, it is reasonable to assume that the later phase of burials associated with the hospital, or the Connaught Asylum as it was then, began where the burials already existed and extended westward and northward from this point. The burials excavated in this phase of work would therefore be among the latest on-site. A 19th-century map of the hospital and grounds, supplied by the hospital authorities, shows an area marked as ‘old burial-ground’ at the south-eastern corner of the grounds. It is clear that this map shows only a part of the burial-ground, with the western limit indicated at about the line of the trees. One possible explanation for this is that the map is inaccurate, intended only to give an approximation of the location of the burial-ground. Given the general accuracy of the map, however, and the detail of the hospital itself, this is unlikely. Other possibilities are that the graveyard had already expanded beyond its walls and that these further burials are not marked or that the burials recently excavated are more recent than the map. The map is thought to have been drawn in the 1880s.

Despite the generally good bone preservation, little was found of the coffin wood, reflecting the generally dry conditions across the site. Nails were found in abundance, but no fixtures, fittings, plates or handles were uncovered, all evidence pointing to simple Christian burials. It is suggested that the skeletons excavated were those of residents of the asylum, buried at some time in the later 19th or early 20th century.

Reference
Egan, P.K. 1960 The parish of Ballinasloe: its history from the earliest times to the present day. Dublin.