Religious house - Carmelite friars

The National Monuments Service's description

A Carmelite friary of the Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel was founded by the townspeople during the reign of King Edward I (1272-1307), and was enlarged after 1309. It is referred to as St Mary the Virgin in 1467-8, and at its suppression in 1540 it was described as already thrown down. Its property amounted to 9 acres, and consisted of an orchard and a garden near the Boyne and one ‘messuage in the dale’ (White 1943, 247). The friars returned briefly to Drogheda in the 1640s (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 288), but their old convent had been granted to Drogheda Corporation in 1557. A rectangular walled enclosure described as ‘Abbey Park’ is depicted here on the Newcommen map (1657). The area was referred to as fryars park or meadow in 1718 and it is represented as an orchard and a formal garden behind the houses on March Road on the 1835 edition of the OS 6-inch map. (McHugh 2019)

Archaeological testing (08E0031) by J. Kyle from April to September 2008 recorded (excavations.ie 2008:825) what is very likely to be part of the precinct which is preserved under the new development. A substantial E-W double-faced wall (Wth 1.8m; H L 40m plus) with a base-batter on the N side is probably the N wall of the church. Attached to the N side of the wall at the E end is a N-S wall with a mural passage, possibly leading to a stairs. The E end of this building was outside the excavation, but a substantial column intimates that it was a large structure which was vaulted over the ground floor. A stone-lined cess-pit within the structure is later but it produced wooden bowls and utensils as well as sherds of Saintonge, Bristol and local wares together with rich environmental samples. Other artefacts from the excavation include an iron key and a carved wooden stylus, reinforcing the interpretation of the structures as a church. Further W two walls with limestone facings may have marked the W side of the cloister, but much of this area had been filled in with introduced soils to raise the level because of flooding. South of the church wall 28 supine inhumations in three rows were aligned W-E with the heads at W. In the SW corner of the excavation garden soils produced a mixed collection of medieval pottery, roof and floor tiles and metal objects including a cannonball.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 13 June 2022

References

McHugh, N. 2019 Drogheda. Irish Historic Towns Atlas, No. 29. Dublin. Royal Irish Academy.

Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R.N. 1970 (Reprint 1988) Medieval religious houses of Ireland. Dublin. Irish Academic Press.