County: Tipperary Site name: ‘ROSE VILLE’, Western Road, Clonmel
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 83:19 Licence number: 00E0003
Author: Mary Henry, Mary Henry Archaeological Services Ltd.
Site type: Graveyard
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 619172m, N 622446m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.353268, -7.718565
Archaeological investigations were undertaken at ‘Rose Ville’, Western Road, Clonmel, to determine the presence and extent of a burial-ground marked on the 1850–1 Ordnance Survey map. The owners of the site requested that the work be carried out in advance of planning permission to develop the site.
Part of the site was stripped with a machine to determine the presence of human remains. There was a thin cover of topsoil all over the site, c. 0.3m thick. Human remains were uncovered beneath the topsoil cover, at an average depth of 0.3m below ground level. Following the uncovering of twelve articulated human burials, it was decided to cease investigation works because sufficient information had been obtained to confirm that the site was a burial-ground. The human remains were not excavated but preserved in situ. There were no traces of grave-cuts or coffins associated with the burials. They were buried at shallow depths with only 0.3m soil cover. In addition to the articulated remains a large quantity of disarticulated bone was uncovered at very shallow levels, 0.23–0.3m below ground level.
Historical and documentary sources confirmed that the burial-ground was used for the interment of the victims of infectious diseases at the nearby Fever Hospital. The hospital was in use during much of the 19th century. An examination of the cartographic sources suggests that the burial-ground came into existence sometime after 1841, probably during the Famine, when there was a high mortality from contagious diseases, and was decommissioned by the 1870s.
24 Queen Street, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary
