2011:501 - TRIM, Meath

Excavations at the Black or Dominican Friary at Trim were undertaken for the second season in a programme of work aimed at uncovering the below-ground remains of the friary. The work was undertaken as a teaching excavation for the Irish Archaeological Field School (IAFS). Excavations were carried out over a sixteen-week period from May to September.
The site today is 2ha of neglected ground with heavily overgrown areas of masonry in the western half, now in rough grass, surrounded on all sides by housing. The western half is slightly higher than the eastern and is separated from it by a double bank and ditch, which turns west to enclose the northern end of the friary.
The friary was founded by Geoffrey de Geneville, lord of Trim, in 1263 (Potterton 2005, 319). He spent his final years at the friary and was buried there in 1314. The friary was suppressed in 1540, with the church, cloister, chancel and other properties being sold to the bishop of Meath.
Much of the building stone was sold during the 18th century. Resistivity and topographic surveys carried out prior to excavation in 2010 indicated that the remains of the principal buildings and the cloister can still be discerned below ground. Excavations carried out under the direction of Matt Seaver of CRDS in 2008 (Excavations 2008, no. 987, E2398) in the laneway which forms the western perimeter of the site uncovered the remains of burials, potentially up to eleven inhumations, though they were considerably disturbed (Seaver et al. 2009); it is believed that this area constituted part of the cemetery of the Black Friary, which would probably have extended westwards between the south wall of the church and the town wall forming the southern boundary to the site.
Two cuttings were opened in the 2010 season, each in the area of what is believed to be the church (Excavations 2010, no. 539). Both were focused on large pieces of collapsed masonry. During the 2011 season a further three cuttings were opened. One, 16m x 8m, extended from within the nave of the church, across the line of its northern wall, the adjoining ambulatory, the southern wall of the cloister and into the cloister garth. This cutting revealed the extensive nature of the dismantling of the church during the 18th century, when it was effectively used as a quarry to build Georgian Trim. The northern wall of the church was removed to foundation level, except where an ossuary had been constructed into the wall, containing the disarticulated remains of disturbed burials, presumably from among the burials inserted into the church floor but possibly also from the graveyard proper. It appeared that an intact burial had been placed on the collection of bones within the ossuary as a final burial, but this had been disturbed during the dismantling of the north wall of the church, at which point the destructive work stopped and the ossuary was not disturbed further. It is intended to fully excavate this in the coming season. It is also apparent that the nave of the church was extensively used for burial and these burials will be examined in the 2012 season.
The south wall of the cloister was uncovered and, apart from its capping stones, was reasonably intact. Like the walls of the church, it was made of undressed limestone blocks and stood 0.35–0.4m high without its capping. A further two small cuttings, each 5m x 5m, were opened to trace the line of this wall, and the second cutting revealed the south-west corner of the cloister. Damaged but beautifully worked limestone pillars and arches, probably of Portland stone, which formed the cloister arcade, were found in all three cuttings. These had been reused as a rough path in the south-west corner.

CRDS Ltd, Greenanstown, Stamullen, Co. Meath.