Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a slight rise in a low-lying landscape. An early ecclesiastical site and the parish church of Kill St Lawrence within a rectangular, neglected graveyard (dims. c. 70m E-W; c. 40m N-S). It was once part of the possessions of the Knights Hospitallers of Kilbarry (WA017-003001-) (Nolan 1984, 47). Only the E gable with a rectangular window of Dundry stone inserted into a wider embrasure, and the W gable with a central doorway (largely destroyed) survives (ext. dims. c. 11.7m E-W; 5.85m N-S). The graveyard was used for famine burials and was enclosed by a rectangular masonry wall in the late 19th century. A fragment of what may be a 17th-century headstone (Walton 1980, 70) was not located.
The graveyard is within a larger circular ecclesiastical enclosure in rough pasture (dims. c. 130m N-S; c. 95m E-W) which is defined by a fosse (at S: Wth of top 13.5m; Wth of base 4.5m; int. D 0.8m; ext. D 0.4m) E-SW, a curving road fence SW-NW and irregular field boundaries elsewhere. The standing stone (WA017-108----) was just outside this enclosure at SE. Geophysical survey and excavation (02E1448; 03E0127) in advance of roadworks identified a fosse inside the ecclesiastical enclosure, around the E and S sides of the graveyard. Charcoal from a pit inside the inner enclosure produced a C14 date of 370-540 Cal AD, but charcoal from the outer ditch produced a date of 650-780 Cal. AD. Prospection also identified two circular hut-sites (WA017-005005-; WA017-005006-) (diam. c. 10m), each with a central hearth and both possibly within an enclosure, just SE of the ecclesiastical enclosure. Most of these features were preserved beneath a layer of terram under the N-S R708 Airport road. (Corcoran 2004; O'Connell 2004; 2006d)

Corcoran, E. (2004) Kill St Lawrence, Waterford. Possible early Christian enclosure. in I. Bennett (Ed.) Excavations 2002: summary accounts of excavations in Ireland, 495-6, No. 1812. Wordwell. Bray.
Nolan, T. (1984) Listing of Monastic possessions in Waterford, c. 1540. Decies, No. 26, 45-51.
O'Connell, A. (2004) Recent archaeological investigations at Kill St. Lawrence, Waterford, carried out as part of the realignment of the R708 Airport Road. Decies, 60, 27-64.
O'Connell, A. (2006d) Kill St Lawrence. Church and graveyard. in I. Bennett (Ed.) Excavations 2003: summary accounts of excavations in Ireland, 501, No. 1892. Wordwell. Bray.
Walton, J. (1980) Pictorial decoration on east Waterford tombstones. Decies No. 14, 67-83.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload/revision: 01 January 2011