County: Wicklow Site name: Abbey Lane, Abbeylands, Arklow
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WI040-029001 and WI040-029009 Licence number: 22E0029
Author: Yvonne Whitty
Site type: Medieval burial site
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 724518m, N 673441m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.797582, -6.153525
Excavation of four test trenches in Abbey Lane confirms that burial ground WI040-029009, associated with the Abbey Graveyard, extends east beyond its existing wall.
The stratigraphy confirms continuous archaeological activity from at least the 12th- 18th centuries based on the finds assemblage. Four intact burials dating to the medieval period along with disarticulate bone from the post-medieval period were identified.
The excavations have identified one of the only known areas to date in Arklow which contains intact medieval archaeological layers and burials which were exposed at a minimum of 0.3m BGL. The burial ground extends beyond the existing graveyard wall under Abbey Lane. The result of the excavation also confirms that the present-day site of the Dominican friary founded in 1264 by Thomas Theobald FitzWalter, which is believed to be within the enclosed space known today as the Abbey Graveyard, extends beyond the confines of the existing graveyard walls. Up to the suppression of the monasteries in 1539, the friary property was both substantial and extensive. The location of the burial ground detailed in the grants has been identified as a result of these excavations.
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