2016:466 - Church Street, Townplots West, Killala, Mayo

Testing and monitoring was carried out where the potential for inhumation burials was identified. Additional testing and excavation revealed the presence of 89 inhumation burials, 48 disarticulated skulls and a large amount of disarticulated human bone. It is evident that a small burial ground was exposed during the excavation for the new access road and drainage duct.

The concentration of burials was intense and there was evidence that later burials had cut the remains of earlier inhumations as a number of the earlier burials were missing arms, hands, legs etc. The material removed from the burial of later inhumations was simply reburied within the backfilled brown/black clay (F005) and cockle shells which accounts for the large amount of disarticulated bone and human skulls found. No burials were identified to the north, adjacent to the roadway, nor south within the main body of the car park, only within the area defined by the access road, either during this phase of works or earlier monitoring of groundworks in late 2016.

Based on the evidence of the finds alone, it seems likely that the burials may date to the medieval period as a number of shroud pins, at least one with a decorated head, and a number of decayed iron knives were recovered in association with burials. A number of granite flagstones and a portion of a possible stone wall were also exposed which may represent part of the earlier phase of the church (current Church of Ireland cathedral) to the east, which appears to be depicted on the first edition OS map. Consequently the suggestion is that the burials may be medieval or late medieval in date and potentially originally buried within the confines of a graveyard/churchyard, however this will only be confirmed during post-excavation analysis and C14 dating.