1993:106 - CLONTUSKERT PRIORY, Abbeypark, Galway

Archaeological monitoring was carried out in October at the Augustinian Priory of St Mary at Clontuskert, Co. Galway, while a new road and parking area were made at the site.

The new road takes a direct route from the old entrance way on the main road to the south-east corner of the enclosure and continues adjacent to the east wall of the graveyard to the north-east corner where a wider area has been made for turning and parking vehicles. Some levelling of banks, which were considered by Fanning (1976, pp121–2) to be enclosing features relating to post-medieval agricultural field use, was undertaken to provide a level surface for the road. Two pits were uncovered c. 0.4m–0.5m below the surface in the east end of a bank which runs east-west c. 36m south of the graveyard wall. Both pits had a lining of red baked clay and contained a small quantity of charcoal. One pit also contained some slag. Pit A was slightly oval-shaped, with a ledge on its western side and measured 0.6m x 0.5m with a maximum depth of 0.16m. Pit B was not completely excavated but had a maximum length of 0.8m and was 0.21m deep. Some 2.1kg of slag were collected from Pit B and from the disturbed soil in the area. These two pits would appear to indicate some iron smelting or smithing activity but apart from some charcoal, which has not been radio-carbon dated, nothing was uncovered which would provide a date for this activity.

Human bones were located almost directly under the sod at the north end of the section of the road which ran along the east side of the graveyard wall. They were situated 2.15m east of the wall and 9.3m from the north-east angle in the graveyard wall. These consisted of an incomplete extended inhumation oriented west-east (head to the west) with a jumble of human bone on top. The upper part of the body, arms and head were missing. There was no evidence for a coffin or cut for the burial and nothing to suggest a date. During Fanning's excavations in the 70s he had noted that burials underlay the present graveyard wall and the location of this burial outside the enclosure would confirm that the present wall does not reflect the original size of the graveyard as shown on the 1st edition of the OS maps (Fanning 1976, p. 118). The presence of the burial so close to the surface suggests that there may have been some levelling of the ground prior to the present road construction.

Reference Fanning, Thomas, 1976, 'Excavations at Clontuskert Priory, Co. Galway', PRIA Vol. 76C, 97–169.

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