2000:0507 - NAAS: Dublin Road, Kildare

The site is on the western side of the Dublin Road immediately to the north-east of the heart of Naas town centre, in an area abutting the site of what may be an Augustinian foundation. An Augustinian priory dedicated to St John the Baptist was founded in this area in the late 12th century.

This subrectangular linear site is delimited by the divergence of the Dublin Road and the Sallins Road. Between 13 November and 1 December 2000, licensed monitoring and subsequent test excavations were undertaken to determine the limits and density of burial in the cemetery. Prior to this project, a number of test excavations were undertaken by Clare Mullins in December 1995 to evaluate the archaeological potential of the site (Excavations 1995, 47, 95E0279). She found significant human skeletal remains in the southern portion of the site. Furthermore, these burials were located in and around the relict remains of recently demolished cottages that fronted onto the Dublin Road.

The current excavations uncovered the remains of 81 skeletons. Of these, 26 were fully excavated and removed, and a further 55 were only partially uncovered. The burials were not distributed evenly over the burial area but occurred in localised concentrations, with the greatest density occurring in the south corner of the site; elsewhere they appear to be only one or two deep. Most of the inhumations were placed in unlined graves, although there were two examples of a stone-lined construct. The positioning of the skeletons suggested that the bodies were originally wrapped in shrouds. There was a general paucity of grave finds, reflecting general medieval burial practices. Finds consisted generally of sherds of medieval pottery. Burials were typically orientated in a west–east direction.

Individual grave-cuts were not apparent for the majority of burials excavated, except in cases where they cut an earlier inhumation or where they were cut into the subsoil. From the limited number of grave-cuts, some stratigraphic relationships and trends could be discerned. Three possible phases of burial have been identified from the orientation of the burials. Phase 1 consisted of west–east-oriented burials, eleven of which were excavated. Phase 2 consisted of west-north-west/east-south-east-oriented burials. These made up the majority of the burials excavated, with a total of 43. Phase 3 consisted of south-west/north-east-oriented burials. There were only seven burials oriented in this direction.

The northern edge of the burial area is delimited by a wide gravel bank, which also forms the limit of the excavated area. Mullins’s test-trenches in December 1995 found nothing of archaeological significance in the north of the site. Two stone walls were found just outside the north-eastern side of the enclosing element, both of which were probably medieval/late medieval in date. The burials evidently pre-date the later 19th-century cottages, and fragments of possible medieval pottery were found that support a medieval date.

T. O’Connor in the 1837 Ordnance Survey Letters located the Augustinian priory on the site of the parochial house, known as St John’s Abbey, which is located to the west of the development site. The method of burial (simple shroud burials placed in unlined graves, and two stone-lined burials), coupled with the possible links of the site to an Augustinian foundation, support a 13th-century date. Work is ongoing, and results are preliminary. Specialist reports will aid more accurate dating and interpretation of the site.

9 Riveroaks, Riverstown, Birr, Co. Offaly