2002:1479 - KELLS: St John’s Graveyard, Meath

Walter de Lacy, Hugh’s son, founded the hospital of the Crutched Friars of St John the Baptist at the east end of Kells. At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, the church was the only surviving structure of the priory, and it was still standing, though ruinous, in the mid-17th century. The line of the zone of archaeological potential was extended eastward to encompass the site of the priory. Today a graveyard survives there, but there are no visible remains of the church or other priory buildings.

Kells Urban District Council drew up plans to construct a new enclosing wall around the graveyard. The old wall was in very bad condition, and there were worries that it would collapse outward onto the street. The new wall comprised a series of pads into which steel stanchions were inserted; concrete panels were then dropped between the stanchions. Strip footings were excavated between each column to receive steel and a stone facing. This was built in front of the existing wall along the frontage on the main road.

Monitoring of the insertion of stanchion pads showed that the existing graveyard wall extended to 0.6m below the present street level and was built into a foundation trench. Bedrock was exposed in all of the pads here, and the base of the wall was founded on bedrock.

It was necessary to remove the existing stone wall along the lane on the western boundary, as the narrowness of the lane would not allow for the new wall to be built outside the existing wall. The wall was removed using a mini-digger and by hand. The stone came away loosely from the build-up behind it. Fragments of human bone, including skull material, came away with the stones. The fill of the graveyard comprised loose black soil mixed with the human bone, and at the upper levels items of modern rubbish were mixed throughout. The depth of fill varied to some degree, but in general it was c. 1m deep.

Roestown, Drumree, Co. Meath