2007:826 - LEIXLIP: St Mary’s Church, Kildare

An excavation was carried out within the grounds of St Mary’s Church located within the zone of archaeological potential of the historic village of Leixlip. The project involved the monitoring and subsequent excavation of all groundworks undertaken during the installation of a modern drainage system. A previous test excavation (Excavations 2005, No. 767, 05E1133) identified a stone-lined box drain extending around the base of the church 0.35m below the surface. The drain was covered and filled with soft, wet silty clay that contained numerous finds from the post-medieval period: roof tiles, pottery sherds, clay-pipe fragments, glass, a carved bone handle and various iron objects such as corroded nails and coffin handles. Two sherds of medieval Dublin-type pottery were also found. A small quantity of disarticulated human bone was also recovered.

Two inhumations were also identified along the southern wall of the church and tower. The first of these consisted of the partially preserved articulated remains of a child, orientated east-south-east/west-north-west and 0.81m below the existing ground surface. The lower legs, left side and the skull were not evident. Several fragments of post-medieval pottery and a single corroded iron coffin nail were recovered in association with this burial. The second burial consisted of the poorly preserved articulated remains of an infant orientated east–west and located 1.8m to the south-west of the church tower and 0.85m below the surface. The remains were not affected by the development works and were left in situ. A single sherd of medieval pottery, a post-medieval roof tile and five iron coffin nails were found in association with this burial.

A second trench was excavated from the west side of the tower to the boundary wall of the church. Four burials, three infants and a single adult, were found orientated east–west and 1.35–1.5m below the surface. A fragment of Dublin-type medieval pottery and a copper shroud-pin were recovered from the upper fills sealing the burials. The single adult was found at the base of the trench within the poorly preserved remains of a wooden coffin. The three infants were located above the coffin in loose disturbed soil from which numerous nails, corroded iron plates and fragments of wood were recovered. The preliminary analysis of the drain would suggest a late 18th- or early 19th-century date and a late 19th- or 20th-century date for five of the six burials. The sixth unexcavated burial could not be dated with any degree of accuracy.

12 Cherrymount Drive, Carlow, Co. Carlow