County: Mayo Site name: STRADE ABBEY, Strade
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 97E0381
Author: Donald Murphy, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Religious house - Franciscan friars and Religious house - Dominican friars
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 525767m, N 797613m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.922556, -9.130145
Excavations at Strade Abbey, Co. Mayo, were carried out from January to March 1998 in advance of the restoration of the Penal Church to house the Michael Davitt Museum. The Penal Church is attached to the south-west corner of the medieval friary church, and, in addition to the complete excavation of the interior of the church, several trenches were opened outside for the proposed services.
Excavation in the interior of the Penal Church revealed that it had been built on the line of the demolished west range of the medieval abbey. Two substantial medieval walls over 1m thick and at right angles to each other were exposed directly below the mortared floor of the Penal Church. The first of these walls, running north-south through the church, most likely represented the west wall of the west range of buildings. It continued northwards and southwards beyond the walls of the Penal Church and ran parallel to the west gable of the priory church.
Owing to the disturbance associated with the construction of the Penal Church, only the lowermost archaeological deposits survived. These consisted of a clay floor to the east of the north-south wall, which almost certainly represented a floor within the west range of buildings. A stone kiln was uncovered in the north end of the area excavated, which had been badly disturbed by the building of the Penal Church. A stone-lined and lintelled culvert was exposed in the western end of the church and came through what must have been a doorway or gateway in the wall. Two substantial post-holes were exposed, one on either side of the doorway.
To the south of the Penal Church part of what may have been an enclosing ditch was exposed running east-west through the cutting. Finds from the site included Saintonge pottery and a large fragment of a rotary quern. Further work remains to be done before the restoration of the church.
15 Trinity Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth
