2023:290 - Cloondara Old Church, Longford

The archaeological works were in response to a conservation methodology, prepared in support of conservation repairs to the ruined church in the townland of Cloondara in Co. Longford, with funding under the Community Monuments Fund (CMF) Stream 1. They were carried out between September and November 2023 and followed the recommendations of the Conservation Management Plan for the site prepared in 2022, with funding under the CMF Stream 2.
The works consisted of the pinning and pointing of the wall using lime and sand mortar and the wall heads flaunched after the careful removal of cement capping, ivy and shrubs. Where found, sound lime mortar joints were left in place. Consolidation works were carried out around the surviving sections of Cyclopean masonry and ex-situ fragments of earlier features; pointing joints and inserting reclaimed pinning stones was carried out, where necessary.
There were two main areas of archaeological works apart from general attendances for archaeological monitoring purposes. The first was the clearance of the stairway in the north-west corner of the building. Prior to works almost the entirety of the stairwell had been blocked with stone and rubble almost to the height of the opening. The stone was cleared by hand with each stone examined for signs of being worked. No decorated stone was noted, however many were clearly worked, having squared-off faces. These were placed to one side for potential re-use elsewhere in the conservation works. The removal of the stone revealed a layer of plastic overlying undisturbed ground. The plastic consisted of fertilizer sacks, spread to form a barrier between ‘modern’ deposits above and relatively in-situ deposits below. Examination of these lower deposits revealed that for most of the stairwell, the actually steps had been removed, with only the underlying clay foundations exposed. One or two in-situ large stones protruding from the clay may once have formed part of the steps, but the steps proper only appear relatively high up and number three, before the stairs returns up to the level of the vault roof.

The second area of archaeological work was on the roof of the vault. Here a 500mm wide and 3.6m long trench was hand-excavated running roughly east-west across the vault roof. Some 300mm of dark yellow-brown clay loam was removed, which contained abundant roots, many small stones and some mortar flecking. Modern glass and metal pieces were recovered from the upper layers of the deposit. The clay loam came down directly onto the domed roof of the vault, which consisted of stones laid flat onto a bed of mortar. There was no evidence of any formal floor surface. However, excavation revealed a 400mm wide and 300mm deep trench, filled with a loam clay, running north-south parallel to and abutting the west wall. An examination of the underside of the vault in the room below revealed that the apex of the vault was central to the space. This would suggest that the north wall of the building, at ground floor level, is some 400mm thicker than that at 1st floor level above. This may be because the base of the north wall is substantially made of cyclopean stone.

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