County: Offaly Site name: Durrow
Sites and Monuments Record No.: OF009–005 Licence number: CO02, E3161
Author: Tracy Collins, Aegis Archaeology Ltd, 32 Nicholas Street, King’s Island, Limerick.
Site type: Archaeological complex, including high cross
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 632043m, N 730592m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.324619, -7.519006
Limited excavations were undertaken at Durrow as part of the ongoing conservation works at the national monument, on behalf of the OPW. Three areas were investigated. Two were dug around the church in order to facilitate the rendering of the structure and ducting. The third area was around where the high cross had stood. (It was moved for conservation reasons inside the church structure.) Nothing of an archaeological nature was discovered in the first two areas; two skeletons were left preserved in situ.
An area around where the cross had stood measuring 5m by 5m was opened to address the following research questions: Was the cross in its original position? What was it sitting on? Was there an earlier cross? Further information was required on the context of a cross slab excavated by De Paor in 1954: did it cover a grave, for instance?
The excavation around the cross site showed that burial had occurred to the north, south and east of the cross base. Seventeen individuals were excavated, along with much disarticulated remains. Initial examination suggests that all the burials were late in date, probably none earlier than the 18th century. The cross appears to have been in its original (early medieval) position, in that all burials respected the location of the cross base. The cross rested on a layer of redeposited boulder clay, which contained a few fragments of animal bone. There was no evidence of an earlier timber cross at this location, nor was there any evidence of burial beneath the cross. The excavation results would suggest that the cross slab found by De Paor did not cover a specific grave but may have been placed to the east of the cross in order to ‘close’ that area from any further burial – perhaps placed there in the 19th century.
Finds from the excavation included coffin nails and fittings, holy medals and a few shroud pins. Nothing of clearly early medieval date was recovered. A series of radiocarbon dates is proposed for the site, including the animal bone fragments recovered from beneath the cross base, which should provide a firm sequence for burial at the site and a date for the redeposited layer beneath the cross.
