1993:143 - CREEVELEA, Leitrim

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Leitrim Site name: CREEVELEA

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 93E0177

Author: Richard Crumlish

Site type: No archaeology found

Period/Dating: N/A

ITM: E 579755m, N 831406m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.231127, -8.310493

This trial trenching took place between 8th and 9th November at the proposed site of a new graveyard for Dromahair Parish in Co. Leitrim. The site is located in a field in the townland of Creevelea, on land between 50 and 150 ft OD. The field adjoins Creevelea Abbey to the north and is a short distance west of Dromahair village.

Creevelea Abbey was founded in 1508, the last of the pre-reformation friaries, and is a national monument. It was burned down in 1536 and its Franciscan Order was banished later the same century, but returned on two subsequent occasions. What remains of the site today is a complex of buildings including church, tower and cloister.

Three trenches were dug in the 1.474-acre field. No stratigraphy was in evidence along any section of the three trenches, nor was there evidence of any archaeological structures present. A small number of pottery sherds were found. These were all modern in date.

Churchtown, Carndonagh, Co. Donegal