County: Kildare Site name: Walterstown, Co. Kildare
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR KD027-025001 Licence number: —
Author: —
Site type: GRAVES OF INDETERMINATE DATE
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 670379m, N 705737m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.097576, -6.949135
In June 1967 human remains were discovered during construction work at Walterstown, Nurney, close to Kildare town, Co. Kildare.130 The remains were discovered at the base of a field bank that was being bulldozed, apparently on the site of a nunnery. The site was reported to the Gardaí at Kildare, who informed the NMI. A site visit was carried out by Étienne Rynne. Further burials were discovered in situ, and these appeared to be extended inhumations lying west/east. No finds were recovered in association with the burials, but a potsherd (thirteenthto fifteenth-century in date), comprising part of a strap-handle and rim (1967:65), was recovered from the earth nearby. The burials appear to have been placed in unlined graves. The site is marked on the map as ‘Nunnery (site of)’,131 and the burials were thought to have been associated with this site. The human remains were not acquired. These burials may be medieval in date but, given the lack of a secure context, it is not possible to be certain.
130. Parish of Walterstown, barony of Offaly West. SMR KD027-025001—. IGR 270444 205705. The SMR lists a castle and two potential sites identified by aerial photography in this townland.
131. Noted as ‘Religious House—unclassified’. SMR KD027-025——. IGR 270444 205705.
