2001:43 - CORCOMROE ABBEY, Abbey West, Clare

This project concerned the excavation of trial-pits at the abbey church, Corcomroe, at the request of Dúchas. Structural problems had been identified at the church and it was deemed necessary for a number of trial-pits to be manually excavated to check details of the wall foundations. The location of the trial-pits was determined by engineering requirements and in each case it was necessary to establish whether the church walls were founded on bedrock.

The excavation revealed that the area surrounding all five test-pits had been built up with modern redeposited material to facilitate present-day burials in the environs of the abbey. The finds from these pits consisted of disarticulated human bone and fragments of modern glass. The presence of disarticulated bone in all five pits indicated that the area had been subject to regular disturbance over time, again owing to the burial continuum. All disarticulated bone excavated was reburied in the respective pits. In two of the pits the excavation was restricted, in Pit 1 owing to the presence of architectural features (sillstone, spudstone and plinth) and in Pit 4 because of a modern burial. Pit 1 was excavated to a maximum depth of 0.7m. A test-hole at this level determined that the trial-pit was partially located over a gryke in the natural limestone bedrock. Owing to the limited excavation in Pit 1, an extra trial-pit was excavated immediately to the west (Trial-pit 5) to determine presence and depth of bedrock, which was located at a depth of 0.8m. Trial-pit 4 was excavated to a maximum depth of 0.74m, with a test-hole close to a line of the plinth revealing bedrock immediately below. The bedrock was exposed at a depth of 0.8m in Pit 2 and at 0.55m in Pit 3.

Ballydavid South, Athenry, Co. Galway