2019:497 - Abbey Street, Cong, Mayo

The test excavation of a site in advance of its development at Abbey Street in Cong, County Mayo was carried out over two periods between 10 October and 23 November 2018 and between 25 February and 4 March 2019. The proposed development consisted of the demolition of a house and shed and their replacement with two semi-detached houses. Testing was carried out in response to a Request for Further Information and was necessary due to the location of the proposed development within the historic village of Cong (MA120-053).
The site contained a 20th-century two-storey dwelling with lawns to the east and north and a yard and shed to the south. Immediately south of the site was a 19th-century Church of Ireland church (in ruins), set in a graveyard. Cong Abbey (MA120-053001 and National Monument No. 432) was located approximately 11m to the south-west of the proposed development site.
Five trenches were manually excavated to best cover the areas of the proposed development which were accessible. The trenches measured 3.1m, 20m, 4m, 5m and 5m long respectively; 1.5-1.7m wide and 0.15-1.45m deep.
An adult (possibly female) human burial (Sk. 1) was uncovered in one of the trenches near the southern end of the proposed development site. Three further, disturbed, burials (Sk. 2, Sk. 3 and Sk. 4) were uncovered in a second trench adjacent to the southern site boundary. Disarticulated human bone fragments were found in the topsoil in all five trenches.
A late medieval radiocarbon date from a sample from Sk. 1 confirmed that the burial predated the adjacent 19th-century burial ground and was rather associated with Cong Abbey. It appeared likely that the three disturbed burials were also of medieval date. Osteoarchaeological analysis also favoured a medieval date for the disarticulated bone. It would appear that at least a portion of the site was in use as a burial ground during the medieval period and was disturbed at a later date, possibly by the construction of the Church of Ireland church and its associated graveyard in the 19th century and almost certainly by the construction of the two-storey dwelling in the 20th century.
The remains of a domestic dwelling dating to the 18th/19th century were uncovered in a trench at the northern end of the site. This building would haven been part of a terrace of dwellings fronting onto Abbey Street. Four ridge tiles found in the topsoil, dating to the 18th century, may have come from the domestic dwelling.
Elsewhere, the testing revealed disturbed contexts above natural subsoils. Modern artefacts, including a number of inscribed clay pipe bowls and a stem manufactured at 6 Prospect Hill in Galway between 1881 and 1911, were recovered.
A number of cavities became apparent during the excavation of three of the trenches. They are a natural phenomenon, common in and around Cong, which form due to the porous nature of the underlying limestone bedrock.

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