County: Dublin Site name: HOWTH: St Mary's Church
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU015-029001 and DU015-029006 Licence number: 03E0935
Author: Georgina Scally, for Margaret Gowan & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Church and Graveyard
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 728652m, N 739226m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.387511, -6.065935
Monitoring of the installation of a new gas supply at St Mary’s Church took place in June 2003. The church is mid-19th century in date and the lands upon which it is built are recorded in the RMP as ‘Howth Demesne Burial ground – formerly recorded as a battle ground’.
The new gas supply line measures c. 150m, of which c. 100m extends along a public access road, with the remaining 50m within church grounds. Due to a change in the installation method used by Bord Gáis (i.e. from trench excavation to moling), the licence was extended to accommodate test excavation trenches.
Twelve test-trenches were opened. Six were located within the church grounds and a further six were along the public access road. In the trenches excavated along the public access road, nothing of archaeological significance was uncovered. However, within the church grounds, in situ human remains were exposed in one trench and disturbed remains of human bones were uncovered in a further four trenches. The remains were uncovered at a depth in excess of 0.6m. Consequently, a trench was excavated to a level of c. 0.5m and the new gas pipe inserted at a level above the remains. No excavation of the human remains took place.
81 Waterloo Place, Dublin 4
