EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Mayo
Moyne, Co. Mayo
Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Enclosure.
Grid Ref: M255674949 (125678/249491)
SMR No: MA123-060002
Excavation Licence: N/A
Excavation Duration/Year: September – November 1982.
Site Director: C. Manning (National Parks and Monuments Branch, Office of Public
Works).
The site consisted of a large enclosure (135m by 125m) and a ruined church, surrounded by
a stone-wall, set on a patch of pasture located between a bog and rocky terrain. Aerial
photographs of the site showed that the interior of the enclosure had been subdivided by a
system of earthworks. The graveyard was still in use, and the site was excavated after
purchase by Mayo County Council required the provision of an access road.
A series of trenches were excavated inside the enclosure (Fig. 225). These trenches cut
across some of the internal features revealing that some were post-medieval field walls, but
also revealing that some were early medieval ditches. The ditches may have been associated
with the ecclesiastical site however it is also possible that they were associated with an earlier
secular site, which the excavator argues may have preceded the foundation of the church
site.
Finds from these trenches included a number of un-diagnostic objects, but nevertheless the
types of artefacts which are generally associated with early medieval sites - four iron knives;
a piece of worked bone; iron slag; a piece of sheet bronze; an iron pruning hook; half of a set
of iron shears; and an iron disc-headed pin. Quantities of animal bone recovered from the
trenches are dominated by cattle and pig, although a large number of red deer bones were
also found on site, as well as sheep, horse, otter, cat and dog.
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