Graveyard

The National Monuments Service's description

Archaeological monitoring at No's 14-17 Hanbury Lane on the junction of Hanbury Lane and St Catherine's Lane West by Judith Carroll in 2003 under licence no. 03E0439 uncovered human remains representing at least two adults which may have belonged to the graveyard of St Catherine's Church (DU018-020074-) located immediately to the W of the archaeological monitoring site. Although the excavator suggested that this may be a burial ground associated with St. Thomas's Abbey (Carroll 2006, 137) it is more likely to be the remains of the graveyard associated with St Catherine's parish church. The present St. Catherine's Church (1769) occupies the site of an early 13th century medieval parish church (DU018-020074----). The earliest reference to a church at this site occurs in Crede Mihi (1212-25). It was appropriated to the Augustinian priory of St. Thomas and subsequently to the Earls of Meath (Bradley & King 1987 2, 111-2). The graveyard to the S of the church contains memorials dating from the 16th century to the 19th-century (DU018-314/315----). In 1973 the National Museum of Ireland recorded the discovery of human bones representing the remains of 3 adult males and 1 child beneath the pavement outside the front of St. Catherine's Church (DU018-020074-). It is clear that the present boundary wall of the graveyard does not enclose the full extent of the graveyard belonging to St Catherine's Church.
The results of the monitoring were summarised as follows; 'Monitoring took place on the site [ITM Coords 714484/733831] in October 2003. Trial-trenching had already indicated that there was no surviving archaeological stratigraphy and this was borne out by monitoring. Three human bones were found, but these were unstratified within the cellar debris. They comprised damaged portions of two right tibiae and a right humerus and represented at least two adults, according to the osteoarchaeologist’s report. The site was in the area of St Thomas’s Abbey, close to sites along Hanbury Lane in which skeletal remains were found, and it is likely that the remains indicate that the site was used for burial in the medieval period. The site was developed for housing by the early 18th century, according to Brooking’s map'(https://excavations.ie/report/2003/Dublin/0009872/' Excavations 2003:537).

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 13 June 2023

References

Bradley, J. & King, H. (1987) Urban Archaeological Survey, Dublin. A report commissioned by the Office of Public works (Unpublished).