County: Monaghan Site name: MULLANAROCKAN, TEDAVNET
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 11E0224
Author: Martin McGonigle
Site type: Graveyard wall
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 464017m, N 539099m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 64,038.000000, 39,029.000000
Part of the perimeter retaining wall at Tedavnet Old Graveyard collapsed during the winter of 2011. Representatives of Monaghan County Council liaised with the National Monuments Service in relation to the site and it was recommended that a contractor be engaged to rebuild the collapsed wall section and that all works should be monitored. The archaeological programme consisted of three stages of monitoring and recording during the reconstruction works: (i) the removal of the collapsed wall material, (ii) the retrieval of the human remains from the collapsed burial soil and the cleaning and recording of the exposed section, and (iii) monitoring the excavation of the new wall foundation trench.
The graveyard is associated with a 7th-century monastery established by St Damhnat, from which the village of Tydavnet gets its name, Tigh Damhnata, meaning St Damhnat’s (monastic) house.
The works were conducted between 22 September and 14 October. A large quantity of disarticulated human bone was recovered from the collapsed section, along with tooled stones, rotary quern fragments and other small finds, including coffin nails, clay pipe stems and bowls and post-medieval pottery sherds. Some of the tooled stones, including a chamfered example, may have been part of a medieval church known to have been located on the site but removed during the 19th century. The analysis of the human remains and finds is ongoing.
John Cronin and Associates, 28 Upper Main Street, Buncrana, Co. Donegal
