2006:1924 - Terryglass, Tipperary

Testing was initially undertaken by Daniel Noonan in Terryglass, along the path of a proposed pipeline through the village (Excavations 2003, No. 1805, 03E1506). Due to access problems, the road that passes an early medieval complex was not available for testing and as a result a trench was opened to the south of the road. This revealed the presence of human remains. Therefore, in 2006 it was decided to open a trench within the road itself, prior to the construction of the pipeline, under an extension to the original licence. This trench revealed that the human remains extended north and were located beneath the road. After consultation with the National Monuments Section of the DoEHLG, it was decided to excavate the remains in the pathway of the pipeline.
The excavation took place on 7–9 November and on 24 November 2006. A total of 23 burials were recovered from within two sections of the pipeline trench, nineteen from the section of trench excavated over the first three days with the remaining four recovered from the second trench on 24 November. The burials were in a poor state of preservation and had also experienced truncation, not least from the placing of subsequent burials in the graveyard. There were no finds or other diagnostic material recovered during the excavation and therefore no concrete date can be assigned to the burials until specialist analysis of the material obtained during the excavation has been completed. However, it is likely that the skeletons are medieval in date.