2021:499 - St Marys Abbey, Ferns Demesne, Ferns, Wexford

In July-August 2021 the Irish Archaeology Field School undertook the first season of excavations at Ferns Demesne townland in Ferns Co. Wexford. The site is located adjacent to St Mary’s Abbey, a recorded monument which forms part of a significant multi-period complex (WX015-003004-, WX015-003031-, WX015-003032-, WX015-003033-). The site was founded by St Aidan around the turn of the seventh century and also contains early medieval crosses and cross slabs, a twelfth-century Augustinian Abbey (St Mary’s Abbey), and a thirteenth-century medieval cathedral (St Edan’s Cathedral) within its wider confines.

The excavations were conducted under Ministerial Consent (C000967; excavation and detection references E005108 and R000521) as the first season of a longer-term excavation, proposed to run from 2021-2023. In 2021 two cuttings were opened, partly to investigate geophysical trends identified in surveys of the site by Ger Dowling in 2015; these surveys were undertaken with the Discovery Programme as part of the Monastic Ireland project.

In Cutting 1 an L-shaped feature identified by geophysical survey in 2015 and in historical mapping is the intact sub-surface remains of two walls at right angles. Its form and dimensions suggest that these are the remains of walls relating to St Mary’s Abbey, but do not (based on current findings) appear to be the remains of a cloister. A curvilinear feature identified in Cutting 1 is the backfilled remains of an enclosing ditch most likely constructed in the early medieval period and appears to be the inner enclosure of St Aidan’s Monastery. This inner enclosure was backfilled around the time of the construction of St Mary’s Augustinian Abbey (c. 1160s), probably to accommodate it.

In Cutting 2 an E-Shaped feature identified by geophysical survey in 2015 is the partial remains of a walled double aisled structure. A number of finds (mainly pottery) suggest a high medieval date (c. twelfth to fourteenth century) for this structure. A curvilinear feature in Cutting 2 was clarified as the backfilled remains of a large enclosing ditch which appears to be the outer enclosure of St Aidan’s monastery. Radiocarbon dating suggest a seventh to eight century date for this feature.

Artefacts from the site primarily date from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, matching the historical existence of high-medieval structures at the site. By far the most abundant finds were pottery including Leinster Cooking Ware, Wexford Type Coarseware, Wexford Type Ware, Ham Green A and B Ware, Saintonge, Saintonge Sgraffito, Minety Ware, etc. Other notable finds included occasional medieval ridge and floor tiles and broken ceramic ‘lamps’ – some of very few examples previously known from Ireland. Several pieces of probable kiln furniture and pottery ‘wasters’ were also recovered. Notable other finds included, but were not limited to, three coins of which two are likely to be medieval in date with one provisionally identified as a a thirteenth-century Edward II coin. A copper George III half penny from c. 1788 to 1850 was also recovered.

Johns Hall, Birr, Co. Offaly