1993:203 - CORMAC'S CHAPEL, Cashel, Tipperary

In the 1993 season the three small trial holes which were opened in December 1992 were extended (Excavations 1992, 56). The whole of the two areas lying between Cormac's Chapel and the chancel of the cathedral as well as the interior of the north tower, chancel and c. one half of the nave of the chapel were excavated down to subsoil. The work was carried out as part of the ongoing restoration work by the OPW.

In Area 1 to the east of the north tower five phases of graveyard were uncovered, four of which pre-date Cormac's Chapel. A short length of mortared stone wall underlying the eastern part of the cathedral wall is believed to be part of an earlier church, probably contemporary with the third and fourth phase of the graveyard. The graves had cut though and badly disturbed an underlying earlier stratigraphy but no structures were identified as belonging to this earlier phase. The foundations of the cathedral sacristy, built in the 17th century, truncated the upper layers of the graveyard and provided a terminus ante quem for the skeletons.

Area 2 lay to the west of the north tower in the enclosed area outside the north door of the chapel. This area had been badly disturbed around the turn of this century, when the whole area had been lowered and then filled up again with a thick deposit of stone rubble. A circular stone-lined feature in the corner between the cathedral transept and chancel pre-dates the cathedral but its relationship to the chapel is not clear. It is too shallow to have been a well but could possibly have been some sort of storage pit. Unfortunately, the sole fill of the feature was the modern rubble. A second stone-lined feature, this time rectangular, lay in the north doorway. It too had been badly disturbed and there was no clear stratigraphic link to the chapel, however, some alterations to the stonework on the north side of the doorway suggest that the feature may be a late insertion. It is tentatively identified as a shrine. A single skeleton was cut by the circular feature while a later row of burials in the east of the area is believed to date to between the building of the chapel and cathedral. The only other feature of note was the remnant of what may have been a stone-paved surface at a level pre-dating the chapel.

Area 3 lay within the chapel. At the east end was a row of four postholes orientated slightly askew to the chapel. The burials at Phase 2 of the graveyard in Area 1 were aligned on this structure and so it is interpreted as an early church. Further to the east in the nave there were no contemporary structures but what appeared to be an occupation surface was identified. There was a thick build-up of deposits over this surface and against the posts of the church. The church seems to have fallen into disuse and part of the area taken into use as a graveyard, possibly at Phase 3 or 4 of the graveyard in Area 1. A series of burials at the east end is cut by the foundation for the chapel. Much of the interior had been disturbed, first by 17th- and 18th-century burials and then, in more recent times, by features of unknown purpose.

In the north tower the ashlar facing was found to continue down to the level seen in the nave. The opening in the east wall of the tower can now be seen to have originally been a window, which has been converted into a doorway by lengthening the ope downwards and raising the floor to match the new level. The inserted doorway and steps between the tower and nave are part of the same work.

It is too early yet to give suggested dates for the phases pre-dating the chapel though some at least pre-date the handing over of the Rock of Cashel to the Church in 1101. Some of the pottery found on the early occupation surface has yet to be identified but sherds of B-ware have been found. Other finds include stick pins, a parallelepiped die, a coin of c. 1200-1210 and fragments of combs. Combmaking was the only trade/handicraft to leave any trace of manufacturing on site and the evidence for that was very slight.

Gouig, Castleconnell, Co. Limerick