County: Louth Site name: Moneymore, Co. Louth
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR LH024-041110 Licence number: —
Author: —
Site type: Graves of indeterminate date
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 719404m, N 809879m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.024281, -6.177650
The Mall and Bessexwell Lane, Drogheda In September 1963 human remains were discovered during construction work on the Mall, on the northern side of the River Boyne at Moneymore, near Drogheda, Co. Louth.180 The remains were apparently discovered at a depth of 2–3m below the present ground level. The site was reported to the Gardaí, who informed the NMI. A site inspection was carried out by Étienne Rynne. According to Rynne’s report, the bones were mostly found in two large holes made in the eastern part of the site and spaced about 6m apart. Other areas also produced small quantities of bone.181 The impression of the workers at the site was that the bones had been indiscriminately ‘thrown’ into the ground, but at least one complete skeleton, aligned approximately west-north-west/east-south-east, was found on top of other miscellaneous bone. No associated artefacts were found with the bone, although a copper Elizabethan coin dating from 1601 was found at a depth of c. 1.2m in one of the pits. In 1954 Dr Joseph Raftery inspected a site at Bessexwell Lane (near the Mall) where a garage was being built on the former site of three small cottages for Galbraith’s Bakery. A cutting c. 1m deep was exposed. Human remains were discovered together with charcoal, sea shells, modern brick, a few medieval pottery sherds and two pieces of glazed floor tiles. The material was very mixed and, in the opinion of Dr Raftery, had been thoroughly dug over in the past. The medieval Franciscan friary is thought to have been located in this area of Drogheda. In 1994 monitoring of boreholes and trial trenches found evidence of medieval deposits in Bessexwell Lane, within 1m of the present ground surface, and the nearby Mayoralty Street, where a medieval floor tile was found (94E0131).
180. Parish of St Peter’s, barony of Drogheda and Municipal Borough. SMR LH024-041110-1–; exact location not marked.
181. According to Rynne’s account, the holes had already been partly filled in with cement at the time of his visit. The human remains do not seem to have been acquired.
