1997:549 - NENAGH: The Friary, Abbey Street, Tipperary

Archaeological assessment and excavation were carried out for pre-development purposes on a site in close proximity to the extant church of the 13th-century Franciscan friary at Abbey Street in Nenagh. Nine cuttings, average dimensions 5m x 2m, maximum depth 2m, had been excavated in December 1996 (Excavations 1996, 107). These cuttings had indicated the presence of substantial subsurface archaeological remains, possibly medieval in date, which may be associated with the original friary. In February 1997 further work was carried out on site. Four further cuttings were inserted in order to obtain a clearer picture of the archaeological remains.

Cutting 10 (20m x 10m with an extension 6.25m x 5.64m to the west, maximum depth 1.3m), located at the centre of the site and incorporating two earlier test-cuttings, revealed significant archaeological remains. A graveyard, 10m east–west and 13.5m north–south, was revealed. Although only four skeletons were uncovered, with a fifth, later inhumation at the extreme northern portion of the cutting, the amount of disarticulated human bone and decayed human bone fragments suggests that at least two levels of burials originally lay within the graveyard. Sherds of medieval cooking ware and local green-glazed medieval pottery suggest that the burials date from this period.

Wall A, 16.25m in length and 0.4m in height, ran east–west across the northern portion of the cutting and forms the northern boundary of the graveyard. Although largely robbed out, it would appear to be a large external wall associated with the extant remains of the friary, which lie immediately to the north of this cutting. Internal structures formed by stone-built walls B, E and F, with possible clay floors, also in the northern portion of the cutting, suggest that part of the domestic quarters or kitchen area was located here. Door-jambs and the door-sill revealed at the base of Wall A are not in situ, but were placed in their present position some time after the destruction of the 13th-century friary in 1548; however, their location may mark the position of an earlier entrance. There is fine workmanship on the door-jambs, and the cross-slab which was reused as the door-sill has fleur-de-lis-type ornament which would date it to the 14th century.

The cobbling and walls in the southern portion of this cutting are mostly post-medieval in date and associated with domestic and industrial structures on the site in the 18th and 19th centuries, although it should be noted that Wall G, which ran in an easterly direction across the southern portion of the cutting (maximum height 1.7m), appears to be medieval in date and to form the southern boundary wall of the graveyard.

The three other cuttings, 11, 12 and 14, located to the west of Cutting 10, average size 3m x 8m, each revealed stone-built walls, although the incorporation of red brick into some of these walls and the occurrence of post-medieval pottery suggest that they may be post-medieval in date, although the wall in Cutting 12, 5.63m in length and 0.8m high, may be medieval and may relate to the original friary. However, further work would be necessary to determine the correct date for these walls and how they may be associated with the friary.

It would appear on the above evidence that, unlike the majority of Franciscan friaries, which were all built to much the same basic plan, with cloisters, dormitories, refectories, chapter rooms and kitchens being located on the north side of the church, at Nenagh friary these buildings were placed on the south side of the extant church, which appears to be the original 13th-century structure, although considerably modified during the 15th, 16th and 19th centuries.

168 Corbawn Wood, Shankill, Co. Dublin