County: Westmeath Site name: CLONFAD (3)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WM032-089 Licence number: A001/036
Author: Paul Stevens, c/o Valerie J. Keeley Ltd
Site type: Ecclesiastic enclosure
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 640541m, N 740616m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.414114, -7.390181
An excavation commenced in November 2004, and is ongoing at the time of writing (January 05), at a site in Clonfad townland, Co. Westmeath. The excavation is part of mitigation of the N52 upgrade, which forms part of the N6 Contract 2, Kinnegad–Kilbeggan dual carriageway PPP scheme. The proposed road passes close to a graveyard and ruined church and excavation has revealed the site to be a large Early Christian ecclesiastical enclosure with a significant assemblage of early historical artefacts.
Prior to excavation, the site was evidenced by a small late medieval stone church within a walled graveyard, lying on top of a low hill, containing headstones dating back to the late 18th century. Geophysical analysis and centre-line testing had been carried out by Laurence McGowan, 04E1090 (No. 1723, Excavations 2004).
Clonfad gives its name to the townland and the parish and was mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters, which record a church being burned and reliquaries desecrated in the 9th century (AD 887). Other historic references link the site to Finnian, who may have founded the monastery, and his successor, Bishop Seanach.
A large open-area excavation took place across the width of the road-take for a length of 130m, 30–40m in width. This constituted a tangential segment of a very large oval enclosure, defined to the north by a large V-shaped ditch and to the south and east by a stream. The western extent of the site was outside the area of development but can be traced by a faint earthwork, giving an approximate diameter of 200–250m.
The site has so far produced evidence of one human burial, two stone drying kilns, including one containing burnt seeds, various furnace pits and hearths and a large enclosing ditch evidenced to the north of the excavation area. The ditch was V-shaped in profile with a flat base, measuring 3m in width and 3m in depth, and was excavated for a length of 63m. It was lined by redeposited clay, suggestive of a moat, and backfilled with occupation debris, including a layer of slag and burnt soil, all sealed by a homogenous backfilled silt, which may be indicative of a bank. Evidence of bone working (including one complete bone comb and three fragments), ferrous and non-ferrous metalworking waste and equipment (including crucible fragments, shears and tweezers, and stone moulds, all indicative of an early medieval Irish origin) were found.
Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny
