2011:646 - SEVEN CHURCHES OR CAMADERRY, Wicklow

Excavation was carried out on behalf of the Office of Public Works over a three-week period between 7 and 25 March 2011 in advance of the construction of a new pedestrian footbridge across the Glenaelo River. The footbridge is being constructed within the curtilage of the monastic site at Glendalough, a National Monument (WI023-008).

The new bridge is located to the south of the principal early ecclesiastical monastic site and graveyard at Glendalough, 40m south of St Kieran’s Church and also adjacent to the bullaun stone known as ‘the Deerstone’. The excavations straddle the site of a ford across the river, which are marked as stepping-stones on the 1st-edition OS map (1837).

Archaeological deposits were uncovered during the excavation, which involved the removal of all the archaeological material from the footprint of the bridge foundations. The bridge design sought to minimise the size of the new bridge piers and consequently the required excavation was small in scale, being located principally within two areas centring on the two foundation pads, which each measure 2.6m by 1m.

The dig uncovered a succession of deposits. Four principal phases of archaeological activity were identified as follows.

Phase I (Early Christian?). A stone-built riverbank or revetment was built with large granite boulders. One stone had been used extensively as a whetstone for filing and sharpening metal tools and other objects.

Phase II (Early Christian?). An earthen bank was constructed in front of the stone riverfront revetment (Phase I). This bank or sequence of deposits was built from successive layers of charcoal, clay and gravel. It clearly formed part of a larger, as yet uninvestigated structure.

Phase III (medieval, 13th–15th centuries). A paved surface and path were built on the earlier structures (Phase I and II). Two sherds of Leinster Cooking Ware were retrieved from within the paving deposit.

Phase IV (post-medieval, 18th–19th centuries). A large, stone-lined enclosure wall was constructed around St Kieran’s Church. Stone bridge abutments for a late 19th-century timber bridge were constructed. The stone enclosure wall was built in the middle of the 19th century or before; the bridge abutments appear to date from either side of 1875–6, when the site was taken into state care.

The excavations at the Deerstone and within St Kieran’s Enclosure have revealed a sequence of rich archaeological deposits. Previous investigations at the site of the visitor centre (Manning 1983–4) were located some distance from the monastery to the east or have been very limited in extent (Ann Lynch, Excavations 1989, no. 101). Therefore this small investigation is significant by virtue of the importance of the site and the limited scientific excavation conducted to date at the main monastic complex.

The extent of the remains uncovered in the limited area investigated indicates that substantial buried archaeological deposits exist at that site; perhaps this is not unexpected, given the status of the site. While it should come as no surprise that buried archaeological deposits survive at the monastic site, it is perhaps somewhat telling that such rich deposits are located around its periphery, such as at the river crossing investigated during this excavation.

The primary research question following the excavation should focus on the nature (analysis of macro-fossil plant remains and charcoal) and date (¹⁴C dating) of the Phase I and Phase II activity uncovered in Cutting 1. These phases of activity may be contemporary with the main building phase at the site around AD 1100 (Ó Carragáin 2010, 248), although an earlier sequence of dates cannot be discounted as a possibility.

The analysis of the macro-fossil plant remains within five samples retrieved from soils in the Phase II ‘bank’ deposits may hold the key to understanding the function of that structure. It is possible that the deposits are part of an early enclosure around St Kieran’s Church or maybe part of a mill. Further work is critical to resolving this issue, and radiocarbon-dating these horizons is equally essential to understanding the evolution of this important element of the wider monastic site.

References

Manning, C.  1983–4  Excavations at Glendalough. Journal of the County Kildare Archaeological Society 16 (4), 342–7.

Ó Carragáin, T.  2010  Churches in early medieval Ireland. Architecture, ritual, and memory. New Haven and London.

Edmond O’Donovan & Associates, 77 Fairyhill, Bray, Co. Wicklow