County: Donegal Site name: St Johnston Church & Graveyard boundary walling repairs
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DG063-003001, DG063-003002 Licence number: E005743, C001406
Author: András Hindli
Site type: Archaeological monitoring
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 634509m, N 909622m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.933109, -7.461543
Damage has occurred to a portion of the graveyard boundary walling of St Johnston Church and Graveyard (DG063-003001, DG063-003002) as a result of an extreme weather event (Storm Isha), on 21 January 2024. A mature conifer uprooted and fell inward to the graveyard area and pulled up a portion of the stone-built rubble graveyard boundary wall. A grave marker was also uprooted. The tree fall timber was removed from site but the exposed roots and tree stump remained. Urgent repair works were required to safeguard the archaeological integrity of the site as well as reinstate the presentation of the graveyard for the visiting public. The uprooted tree stump was mechanically removed and the area was cleaned and evaluated before the reconstruction process. This area measured approximately 7m in length and between 0.5–1m in width. The exposed surface did not consist of the natural subsoil, but the immediate topsoil horizon below the sod organic layer.
The displaced grave memorial within the section of uplifted sod was reinstalled in its original location using survey-grade GPS and a hand-dug trench prepared in advance. The trench depth remained within the topsoil horizon, and as such, the natural subsoil was not exposed during the excavation.
Nothing of archaeological consequence was identified during the archaeological monitoring.
Burnside, St Oran's Rd, Buncrana, County Donegal
