Burial ground

The National Monuments Service's description

On a gentle W-facing slope within the NW quadrant of an ecclesiastical enclosure (TS065-013001-) at Emly. This burial ground was discovered during the construction of a housing development on the NW side of the village. St Peter’s well (TS065-013005-) lies c. 30m to the NW. Burials were uncovered in two areas, an area of 96m2 to the W of houses 1 and 2 and an area of 36m2 for a sewage trench 25m to the SSW of the former. A total of 102 E-W aligned burials were excavated, consisting of 63 adults and 39 juveniles. All the graves were earth-cut and there were no traces of wooden coffins, only two nails were found in burials. Within the larger area excavated three phases of burial were noted. The earliest phase is likely to be early medieval in date and therefore possibly associated with the monastery. Burials which were identified as being later in date appear to be of children and thus it has been suggested that after the burial ground had gone out of general use it continued to be used as a children’s burial ground. (Henry 2003 Archaeological excavation at Emly, Co. Tipperary, unpublished report).

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 27 August 2012

References

Henry, M. 2003 Archaeological excavation at Emly, Co. Tipperary. Unpublished report, National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Licence no. 02E1773.