County: Dublin Site name: WESTEREAVE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Margaret Gowen
Site type: Burial ground
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 713842m, N 746937m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.460180, -6.285670
Several excavations were carried out between May and October 1988, ahead of the construction of the North-eastern Pipeline, Phase 2, running from Abbotstown to Dundalk.
The site lies at the summit of a long, gentle but prominent south-east facing slope, to the east of Mount Ambrose House, which runs down towards the east flowing Ward River north of Skephubble.
The site was discovered when several lintel type graves were uncovered during topsoil removal. Excavation revealed a total of 57 burials, 12 of which were placed in neatly constructed slab lined and slab covered graves and several of which occurred in rough stone settings or partially lined grave pits. The remainder were placed in unmarked grave pits, many of which were cut into the outcropping bedrock. The bedrock is a bedded slate shale which splinters readily.
The burial area extended along a 27m stretch of the pipeline corridor and is likely to spread beyond the fence line on either side. The burials at the southernmost end of this area were very disturbed and many had been partially removed by cultivation. Some loose bones were also revealed in this area. At the north the remains were well preserved and deeply buried. While the bone preservation was good, in many cases most of the skeletal remains in the uncollapsed lintel graves had almost completely decayed away in the stone-free silt fill which had percolated into them after burial, leaving in some cases only the slightest traces of bone and tooth enamel.
There was no enclosing element around the cemetery. Trial trenches were excavated to the north and south but no further features were revealed there or in the vicinity during trenching.
Excavation of the northern portion of the cemetery revealed an annular gully which appeared to have been excavated so that it surrounded one, or a group, of unlined pit graves. Several of the later lintel-graves were cut into its fill. The gully had a diameter of c.9.5m. It was 0.25m deep and had a gently rounded to U-shaped profile 0.25m-0.3m.
The cemetery is very well ordered. All burials lie roughly in rows, at distances of 0.2m or more from each other. No later burials cut earlier interments. While some sort of marking system must have been used for each burial no postholes or stone sockets were revealed.
Two of the unlined pit graves yielded evidence for coffins, in the form of very poorly preserved wood and small fragments of corroded iron.
Only one later feature was revealed in the area excavated. It was a later, possibly agricultural, linear gully which ran northwards across the burial area cutting through all the burials it crossed. It had a U-shaped profile and was 0.4m wide and roughly 0.2m-0.3m deep.
A small iron buckle and a fragment of bronze were recovered from the site. There were no other datable finds and there was no animal bone present.
5 St. Catherine's Road, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
