County: Longford Site name: KILCOMMOCK CEMETERY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 09E0183
Author: Judith Carroll, Judith Carroll & Company Ltd, 11 Anglesea Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 613653m, N 775341m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.727558, -7.793106
Test-trenching was carried out on the site of the proposed Kilcommock Cemetery extension, Co. Longford, on behalf of Longford County Council. As part of the planning conditions a geophysical survey of the site was required in advance of the test-trenching. This was conducted by Target Geophysics on 6 March 2009. The results of this survey identified a number of features of archaeological potential across the site which were specifically targeted by the testing.
According to J.J. McNamee (McNamee 1954, 674) there are three annalistic references to the parish of Kilcommock in the 15th and 16th centuries. The earliest date is 1411, under which McNamee quotes a record from the annals stating that a ^Bernard Macmurcherchaid had been lately provided to the perpetual vicarage of “Killdacanog” ’. The Irish name of Kilcommock is ^Cill da Chamog’ and it is referred to in this entry as being in the vicarage of St Frign.
Testing was carried out at the cemetery extension site on 20 April 2009. Of the ten features identified during the course of the testing, only two were considered to be of possible archaeological significance. They were C5, a feature containing charcoal, and C10, a stone feature containing large limestone boulders. Both were located on the northern end of the site. This part of the site was both higher and the soil less waterlogged than the south and south-west end.
The rest of the features identified represent field boundaries and drains of relatively recent date. The line of the field boundary features would appear to correspond with the field boundaries marked on the first-edition OS map. Some of these were picked up by the geophysical survey No finds/artefacts were found in association with any of the features recorded. The possible archaeological features identified during the testing in April were subsequently excavated in June 2009 but none were found to be of archaeological significance.
Reference MacNamee, J.J. 1954 History of the Dioceses of Ardagh. Dublin.
