County: Meath Site name: NEWTOWN TRIM (Saint Johns td)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: P.D. Sweetman, OPW
Site type: Religious house - Fratres Cruciferi
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 681633m, N 756821m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.554958, -6.767979
This priory of the Fratres Cruciferi was founded by Bishop Simon de Rochford shortly after 1202. Buildings on the site consist basically of a nave, chancel, domestic range, tower house and enclosing walls with two angle towers. Limited excavations took place here in 1981 and 1984 to facilitate conservation work.
The domestic range at the north side of the priory was cleared out and a drain which served to give a water supply from the river Boyne was excavated. The nave and chancel were excavated to the level of the wall footings revealing the building sequence and the remains of a rood screen. Finds were located mainly in a disturbed context and were fragmentary. Thirteenth- and fourteenth-century pottery as well as some post-medieval wares were reeoinvered. A late 13th-century key and an iron two-pronged instrument were recovered from the drain.
