County: Louth Site name: CARLINGFORD: Church Lane
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0161
Author: Cia McConway, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Burial
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 718915m, N 811419m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.038229, -6.184507
During monitoring of the ongoing Main Drainage Scheme in Carlingford, human skeletal remains were discovered in Church Lane, outside the eastern gate of the Holy Trinity Church. Work on the drainage scheme was halted to facilitate the excavation of the remains.
Four human skeletons were discovered lying just outside the modern walls of the graveyard. All four lay within the natural beach gravel; there was no evidence of coffins. It was determined that the skeletons were at least several hundred years old, but in the absence of associated datable artefacts a more accurate age cannot be estimated at this time.
The lower legs of all four skeletons had already been removed with the construction of a cobbled surface-presumably a path/roadway. Three of the skeletons lay within a single grave-cut, and there was evidence to suggest that the first burial had been pushed or moved slightly to allow for the second, which in turn partially underlay the third. The fourth burial lay to the south of these and within a much shallower grave-cut.
Pathology analysis was carried out on site by L. Buckley, who has determined that all four were young adult males and all bore sword cuts on their skulls. One individual had a healed head wound in addition to the fresh sword mark. Given this evidence, it is likely that these four individuals were infantry men, struck down from horseback in a late medieval/early post-medieval skirmish.
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