County: Offaly Site name: St Francis Church, Ballycommon
Sites and Monuments Record No.: OF018-003 Licence number: 13E0447
Author: Tim Coughlan, IAC Ltd
Site type: Church and graveyard
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 641993m, N 727032m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.291920, -7.370150
Monitoring was carried out during the redevelopment of St Francis' Church, Ballycommon on behalf of Ballycommon Organisation for Local Development (B.O.L.D.) Ltd. Monitoring was carried out in response to planning conditions attached to the proposed development by Offaly County Council (Planning Ref.: 12/275) between December 2013 and June 2014.
Proposed design plans required the underpinning of the porch at the west of the church, the excavation of two foundation foot pads within the church and the laying of new sewage pipeline through the graveyard.
No burials or features of archaeological significance were identified within the trenches excavated around the porch or through the graveyard.
Monitoring of ground works within the church was undertaken as a precautionary measure as it was understood that all burials had been subject to clearance work by the Department of Environment approximately 5 years ago. A quantity of disturbed human remains was identified at c. 0.7m below current ground level in Cutting 1 which appeared to represent remnants of the previous clearance works. These bones were recorded and removed. However further investigation in this cutting revealed a row of east–west burials, three of which were intact.
Monitoring of excavation in Cutting 2 revealed a shallow truncated juvenile burial at 0.45m below ground surface. Due to the shallow and previously disturbed nature of the remains this skeleton was recorded and analysed. Further investigation revealed the presence of at least four additional undisturbed burials, two of which contained coffins.
Excavation work was halted and following consultation with the NMI and the NMS the remaining burials were preserved in situ. To prevent any further impact on these remains the proposed development was redesigned and the mezzanine level will not now be constructed.
The disarticulated bone and remains of juvenile Br. 7 were analysed by an osteoarchaeologist and a report prepared.
IAC Ltd, Unit G1, Network Enterprise Park, Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow
