2000:0915 - CASHEL: Agar's Lane, Tipperary

An archaeological excavation was conducted in Agar’s Lane, Cashel, between 13 and 28 January 2000. It took place in advance of the grading of a public footpath. Initial council work uncovered human burials. As a result the grading was suspended until the area was fully excavated. Historical records show that the path (111.038m OD) was situated within an archaeologically sensitive area of the medieval town. The work had originally started in November 1999 but was suspended when the burials were discovered. The path was bounded to the south by a 3m-high wall that formed the northern boundary to St John’s Cathedral (built in 1784). The wall dates to a similar period. The town of Cashel is situated close to St Patrick’s Rock, the seat and stronghold for the kings of Munster from AD 370, where Brian Ború was crowned in 977 and made Cashel his capital.

Clearance of the site revealed a cobbled surface at one location 8.9m from John Street. This clearance also revealed a partially exposed burial that was situated 20m to the east of John Street and within natural subsoil. Removal of modern rubble and debris revealed the partial remains of seven adult burials. All were orientated east–west, with their heads to the west. No grave-cuts were discovered, probably owing to the 18th-century disturbance from the construction of the original lane. There were sporadic depositions of fragmented human bone throughout the area of excavation. These remains had been disturbed by the construction of Agar’s Lane in 1784.

The area of excavation was divided into 2m sections to assess the quantity of bone within each area and thus highlight the location of burials that may have been removed by the construction of the lane. Once the burials had been excavated, a pit was found 8.3m from John Street, along with a large number of animal bones and sherds of 13th–14th-century pottery.

The excavated burials formed part of a medieval graveyard associated with the church that preceded St John’s Cathedral. A possible boundary of the church grounds may be emulated by Feehan’s Road, which describes an arc to the south of St John’s Cathedral. A recent excavation to the east of Friar Street (Excavations 1999, 286, 99E0558) identified a backfilled ditch that may have formed part of this boundary. Partial human remains were recovered from the ditch. The pit preceded the burials in the lane; this would suggest a northward expansion of the graveyard. Collection of the fragmentary human bones shows that the graveyard did not extend to the eastern half of the lane. Pottery sherds within the pit in the same context as the burial show that the excavated material dated to the 13th–14th century.

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