Ecclesiastical enclosure

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 (WA017-005001-) is within a rectangular, neglected graveyard (WA017-005002-). 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 at top 13.5m; Wth at 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. It 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 beneath 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.
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.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 19 July 2011