2011:118 - MOURNEABBEY, Cork

The Knights Hospitaller’s preceptory at Mourneabbey was founded in the early 1200s. The surviving remains comprise a church and remains of other buildings and a precinct wall with two towers.

The church is cruciform in plan. None of the north transept now survives above ground, and only traces of the south transept can be seen. This excavation was carried out in December 2011 to discover the full extent of the south transept, so that the foundations could be protected in the future from damage by grave-digging.

The excavation succeeded in revealing the full extent of the south transept. The east wall and the south-east corner survived to a height of c. 0.5m. Part of the west wall also survived, but the south-west corner had been completely destroyed by burials. These were unmarked burials in an area of the graveyard where there are no modern burials. The transept measured 6.25m north–south internally and 4.35m wide. A later wall had been built against the south-east corner of the transept. It continued southwards for c. 3m, at which point it curved slowly to the west and continued for a further 4m, disappearing beyond the limit of excavation. The foundation courses of another wall were found south of the west wall of the transept. This wall was probably earlier than the transept, but this is not certain as the destruction of the south-west corner of the transept destroyed the relationship between the two.