County: Offaly Site name: RAHAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: OF016-015001 and OF016-015002 Licence number: 04E0759
Author: Tony Cummins for Sheila Lane & Associates
Site type: Church and Graveyard
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 625839m, N 725486m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.279067, -7.612559
Testing was carried out in advance of proposed drainage works in the graveyard located on the south side of St Carthage’s Church, Rahan, Co. Offaly. The nave-and-chancel church is still used by the Church of Ireland and the interior of the church building is badly affected by damp, especially in the chancel area. Testing was carried out to assess the impact of these drainage works on any potential archaeological features and finds in the vicinity of the church. This involved the manual excavation of two trenches in the area of the graveyard adjacent to the south side of the church building, to ascertain the archaeological nature of the soil that has accumulated to a height of 1m against the external façade of the nave and chancel walls.
There are a number of post-medieval grave markers visible in the vicinity of the south wall of the church and the test-trenches were laid out in order to avoid these. A number of east–west-orientated skeletons were uncovered following the removal of the topsoil layer in both test-trenches. These were all contained in unmarked graves with no visible traces of coffin remains; they were left in situ. Following consultation, it was agreed that no further excavation was required at this time, as the testing had confirmed that there were unmarked burials located in the vicinity of the area to be impacted on by the proposed drainage works.
AE House, Monahan Road, Cork
