1 - St Patrick's Graveyard, Hill of Tara, Castleboy, Meath

An archaeological assessment and metal detection survey was carried out on behalf of the Office of Public Works in advance of conservation works of the graveyard wall of St Patrick’s Church at the Hill of Tara, in the townland of Castleboy, Co Meath. The test trenching and metal detection were carried out in three locations where the wall has collapsed or is likely to collapse. The excavation of all test trenches was carried out by hand. The conservation works will include taking down and rebuilding three sections of damaged wall and improvements to the drainage in the soil behind the walls.
The test trenching and metal detection survey was requested by the National Monuments Service and the Office of Public Works and was carried out under Ministerial Consent (C640). The test trenching was carried out between 18 and 29 August 2014. A total of 3 test trenches were excavated at three locations along the graveyard wall.
St Patrick’s Church is located within the Hill of Tara archaeological complex of monuments (ME031-033), which is a protected National Monument. The church and graveyard are listed within the RMP as ME031-033075, a graveyard, ME031-033071, a church and listed within the graveyard are ME031-033072, a font, ME031-033018, a sheela na gig and ME031-033019, a standing stone. The graveyard is also recorded as a battle site, ME031-033083. All of these form part of the Hill of Tara group of monuments.
The site of the current church stands alongside the site of an earlier medieval church. The original church was associated with the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Kilmainham in County Dublin. The Hospitallers' possessions, including the church at Tara, were confirmed to them by Pope Innocent III in 1212. The church was said to be a functioning parish church until the 16th century after which it fell into disrepair. In 1622 the Protestant Bishop of Dublin, James Ussher, visited Tara and noted that the church and chancel were in ruins. In 1822 the medieval church was demolished and was replaced by the present church; all that remains of the original church is a large block of masonry in the graveyard and some of the fine dressed masonry incorporated into the church and graveyard wall. The Board of First Fruits church built in 1822-23 is now in use as a heritage centre.
Trench 1 was located along the eastern wall of the graveyard (ITM 692038, 759871). It was 10m in length and 1.5m wide, and was excavated to a depth of 0.8m at which point natural boulder clay was exposed.

Trench 2 was also located along the eastern wall of the graveyard (ITM 692036, 759826). It was 13m in length and 1.2m wide, and was excavated to a depth of 1.03m.
Trench 3 was located along the western wall of the graveyard (ITM 691968, 759852). It was 8m in length and 0.9m wide and was excavated to a depth of 0.9m.
No archaeological features or deposits were identified in the excavation. However, the three excavated areas led to a better understanding of the 19th-century development, current layout and landscape features and topography of St Patrick’s Graveyard. The test excavations clearly show that during the development/construction of the church in the 19th century the topography of the churchyard saw major re-landscaping works. These works were carried out in order to deal with the large amount of material created by the terracing of the north-eastern quadrant of the graveyard and excavation of foundations for the Victorian church, both of which would have produced large amounts of spoil.
The results of the excavation, although limited in nature, suggest that the current enclosing wall and its internal bank appear to be of late 18th-/early 19th-century date. The wall had a dual purpose; firstly to enclose the graveyard and secondly to act as a retaining wall to retain the internal bank that appears to have been developed to deal with spoil generated during the development of the First Fruits Church and associated landscaping of the graveyard.
A number of finds were retrieved that were of archaeological interest, however they were not recovered from an archaeological context and were retrieved from what appeared to be redeposited material.
A deposit of loose shale (F303) recorded at the bottom of Trench 3 appears to run under the graveyard wall and may represent a deposit associated with the Rath of the Synods which was truncated by the graveyard wall, however the limited nature of the excavation of Trench 3 could not assess this fully and it could equally represent a natural deposit.

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