1999:554 - CARLINGFORD: Holy Trinity Heritage Centre, Louth

The planned addition of a kitchen extension to the Church of the Holy Trinity, Carlingford, now the Holy Trinity Heritage Centre, was subject to an archaeological monitoring condition.

The Heritage Centre is in the south-east corner of the town and stands on the top of a hill, surrounded by a graveyard and enclosed by a stone-built wall. The church is believed to be within the confines of the medieval town of Carlingford, and the site may have been that of the parish church first referred to in documents dating from the early 13th century. At the eastern end of the church stands a tower that may have been built in the late 16th or early 17th century. The church itself may have been added later in the 17th century and underwent extensive refurbishment at the start of the 19th century.

The required groundworks covered an area c. 4m by 4m. Building construction necessitated the ground to be reduced by 0.3m in the area of the new floor and up to 0.8m along the line of the building's foundation trenches. Ground reduction was carried out using a mechanical excavator fitted with a toothless bucket.

Two burials and two drains were uncovered. On instruction from Dúchas, these features were excavated and the burials were removed. The burials were extended inhumations, oriented east-west, and had been placed into shallow graves, which, at the time of excavation, were unmarked. The presence of nails indicates that these skeletons were originally contained in coffins. The western end of one of the burials truncated the eastern end of the second. This earlier burial was only excavated from below the knee, as the rest of the burial extended outside the development area. Apart from coffin nails, there were no grave-goods found in association with these burials, although a bone pin/handle was found in the machined-off topsoil within a metre of the later of the two burials.

Drains had truncated each burial; several bones were missing from the upper skeleton, and the skull had been crushed. At least one of the drains dated from the 19th century and was more than likely constructed as part of the 19th-century programme of renovation. The second drain was either late 19th-or early 20th-century in date.

Excavations undertaken within the church by Dermot Moore and Carol Gleeson in 1992 (Excavations 1992, 44–5) uncovered burials yielding radiocarbon dates of AD 1442-1650 and AD 1517–1666. Twenty burials were excavated, all of which were unmarked within shallow graves. The absence of coffin nails or any trace of wood suggests that the burials were simple inhumations in which coffins were not used. These burials had been disturbed by 19th-century renovation works.

It is possible that the two burials most recently investigated are contemporaneous with the burials excavated by Moore and Gleeson, as they share a number of similarities. The use of coffins, however, in the burials external to the church may indicate a slightly later date.

No medieval archaeological structural evidence or burials were revealed. If evidence for the earlier church survives, it remains to be found.

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