County: Kildare Site name: ST MARY’S CHURCH, LEIXLIP
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 17:3 Licence number: 05E1133
Author: John Kavanagh, National Archaeological Services Ltd, Ard Solas, Lackan, Blessington, Co. Wicklow.
Site type: Medieval church
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 700468m, N 735845m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.363249, -6.490518
An assessment was carried out on behalf of St Mary’s Church, Leixlip. The parish wish to install a new drainage system around the perimeter of the church to prevent seasonal saturation and flooding. The development lies within the zone of archaeological potential of the historic village of Leixlip. St Mary’s is located on the south side of the River Liffey and the Rye Water. It stands on a graveyard site of c. two acres, which was surrounded in the 18th century by a wall. The sites of major river junctions are known to have had considerable significance in the pre-Christian era. It is believed locally that the site had been a Christian site since Viking times.
Six test-trenches were manually excavated along the base of the church building. Disarticulated human remains, a single adult burial and a relatively intact stone-capped drain from the 18th or early 19th century were uncovered.
