County: Dublin Site name: BALLYFERMOT UPPER
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 18:31-04 Licence number: 98E0367
Author: Edmond O'Donovan
Site type: Graveyard
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 709586m, N 733217m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.337834, -6.354496
Archaeological test excavation was carried during October 1998 at the corner of Le Fanu Road and Raheen Road, Ballyfermot, Co. Dublin. The site lies in the townland of Ballyfermot Upper, within the registered area of three archaeological sites (SMR 18:31-01/03/04). These sites include Ballyfermot Castle, and Ballyfermot Church and Graveyard.
The castle, church and graveyard lie within Le Fanu Park. The park has been landscaped, and no standing remains of any of the monuments survive above ground, with the exception of a rectangular mound at the site of Ballyfermot Church. The foundation of the church dates to the 13th century, and it appears to have gone out of use in 1660 (Ball, A history of County Dublin, vol. 4, 101–6. 1906).
The test excavation was carried out in response to a proposed development that partially overlies the eastern fringes of Ballyfermot Graveyard. It uncovered the graveyard wall and articulated and disarticulated human remains within the boundary of the graveyard, which was used from the medieval period through to the beginning of this century (Johnston, The ruins of the Church of St Laurence, unpublished report held in the Ballyfermot Public Library, 1974), but no clear date was established for the burials uncovered. A wall was identified in Trench 1. Its location corresponds to the graveyard wall that surrounded the church. It appears that this boundary (the graveyard wall) turns sharply to the west between Trenches 1 and 2 and defines the extent of the burials on site. Trenches 2 and 3 appear to lie on the eastern side (outside) the graveyard wall. The deposits identified in Trench 3 record the landscaping of the graveyard in the 1970s.
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