2014:248 - Old Mellifont Abbey, Louth

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Louth Site name: Old Mellifont Abbey

Sites and Monuments Record No.: LH023-007 Licence number: C623, E4519

Author: Donald Murphy

Site type: Monastic site

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 701168m, N 778057m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.742322, -6.466358

Monitoring took place of ground works associated with the re-landscaping of the site of Old Mellifont Abbey, carried out to improve visitor access to the National Monument. Two human burials were identified during the monitoring. The monitoring and subsequent excavation of the two burials were carried out by Donald Murphy and Jon Stirland between 22 April and 26 May 2014. The site of Old Mellifont Abbey, LH023-007, is a National Monument.
Monitoring of the landscaping works were divided into three main areas:
• The cloister
• The footpath and picnic areas, which are located outside of the ruins of the abbey
• And the redevelopment of the car parking and associated hard landscaping.

The cloister:
The cloister's modern day ground level (post de Paor excavations) were reduced by approximately 0.11-0.15m around all four ambulatories within the confines of the arcade walls and the internal walls of the north, south, east and west ranges. This ground reduction was carried out to facilitate the construction of a new hard standing footpath around the cloister.
North Range:
The north range of the cloister appears to have been fully excavated by de Paor with no evidence of any archaeological features or deposits. Natural yellowish red boulder clay was identified along the full length of the range. Within the north-west corner of the northern range three previously excavated feature were identified, a post-hole, an irregular-shaped pit and an excavation trench along the south wall of the church within the cloister. All three features had been loosely backfill with a mix of stone rubble and lime plaster.

West Range:
Monitoring identified a layer of broken stone roof slate and lime mortar located along much of the west range at a depth of approximately 0.1-0.15m below the current ground level. A trench was hand dug across this deposit. This deposit may represent material associated with the demolition of the cloister during the dissolution. Similar deposits were identified during excavations carried out by Ann Lynch at Tintern Abbey in Co. Wexford. This material was covered by a compact layer of re-deposited material.
East Range:
Monitoring identified two east-west aligned burials located outside of the main Chapter House door within the east ambulatory; a single post-hole and a network of interconnecting stone-lined drains were also identified. The drains ran under the walls of the east range and along the length of the cloister. Like the west range, a layer of broken stone roof slate and lime mortar was located along much of the east range at a depth of approximately 10-15m below the current ground level. This deposit appeared to cape the burials and the stone drains suggesting that the burials and drains were in place before the demolition of the cloister.
Excavation of the burials:
Like the stone drains, these burials where located underneath a layer of material rich in stone roof slate and lime plaster, suggesting that the burials predated the demolition of the cloister. The two burials were in a prone position with their arms flexed across the pelvis.
South Range:
Like the east and west ranges, much of the south range contained a layer rich in broken roof slate and wall plaster located at a depth of 0.11-0.15m below the current ground level. The network of stone drains continued from the eastern range along into the southern range. However the majority of these drains had been disturbed and a modern elastic land drain pipe was installed and the stone drains filled with pea gravel and the capstones replaced. After removing a section of undisturbed capstone at the request of the OPW it appears that these drains originally would have been located under the layer of broken roof tile and plaster.
The Monitoring of the Path and Picnic Areas:
Monitoring of the lower half of the new access path and picnic area identified no archaeological features or deposits, with the exception of fragments of medieval floor tiles within the topsoil. As the ground works for the path headed north toward the Abbey Church two walls were recorded, both of which appeared to be associated with now-demolished mills that occupied the site. Within the area of the demolished mill the topsoil contained numerous fragment of human bone suggesting that the construction of the mill and previous grounds works on the site had disturbed human burials located to the north and west of the abbey church.
The Monitoring of the car park refurbishments:

No archaeological features or deposits were noted. The majority of the excavations associated with the car parking area where shallow and clearly showed that the area of the car park has in the past been greatly disturbed and the ground level raised with the introduction of hard-core associated with the development of the original visitor’s car park

Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit, Unit 21 Boyne Bussiness Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co Louth.