County: Limerick Site name: KILMALLOCK: Ss Peter and Paul’s Collegiate Church, Abbeyfarm
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 47:22 Licence number: 02E1659
Author: Annette Quinn, Archaeological Services Unit Ltd.
Site type: Church
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 560843m, N 627744m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.399821, -8.575387
Dúchas is currently undertaking conservation works at SS Peter and Paul’s collegiate church, Kilmallock, Co. Limerick. Conservation of the church includes the reroofing of the south transept. The introduction of electricity to the transept involved the excavation of electricity duct trenches from outside the graveyard along the modern concrete pathway, through the south doorway and along the south wall of the south aisle into the transept. A test excavation was undertaken in the south doorway of the church to establish the depth of the door threshold. All other ground disturbance associated with the excavation of the electricity duct trenches was monitored.
The test excavation revealed two flagstones in the threshold of the south door at a depth of 0.4m. The flagstones were confined to the immediate area around the doorway and extended under the door jambs.
The excavation of the duct trench in the graveyard revealed a roughly paved surface at a depth of 0.4m. The stones were flat and angular, creating a very even surface. A porch was added to the south doorway in the 15th century. No evidence of this porch was detected in the duct trench, and it may have been removed during the construction of the paved surface.
The excavation of the duct trenches in the south transept of the church revealed three flat slabs covering a crypt. It was evident that the crypt floor was covered in rubble collapse and that it was entered by at least four steps. The exposed section of the crypt was re-covered, and an alternative route for Trench 3 was excavated.
Department of Archaeology, University College Cork
