County: Meath Site name: MOYNALTY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 96E0264
Author: Donald Murphy, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Graveyard
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 673335m, N 782716m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.788838, -6.887072
It was proposed to change the use of a Church of Ireland church building to office accommodation for the Credit Union at Moynalty, Kells, Co. Meath. The proposed development did not involve the demolition of any of the walls of the existing church but it did involve ground excavation. The present Church of Ireland church is built on the site of an older church, of which there is no visible trace.
Ground excavations indicated the presence of burials below the church floor. These were exposed almost immediately below the floor and can clearly be seen to pre-date the existing church. In total, sixteen burials with disarticulated bone and a cluster of skulls were evident cut into the natural boulder clay. They were all extended inhumations and only one burial appears to be that of a juvenile.
No datable evidence was retrieved for any of the burials and there was no evidence for the use of coffins or shroud-pins. The remains have yet to be analysed.
30 Laurence St., Drogheda, Co. Louth
