Ecclesiastical enclosure

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on a gentle E and NE-facing slope down to a small NW-SE stream. The monastery of St. Aedan or Maodhóg (WX015-003002-), centered on the graveyard S of the medieval Cathedral of St Aedan (WX003-015003-), is within an ecclesiastical enclosure that was identified through a magnetic gradiometer survey (15R0042) at its SE edge. It was recorded as two parallel ditch features c. 45-60m apart E and S of the graveyard and centered on it (Dowling 2015, 8-9). The inner ditch (Wth c. 2m) is overlain by the remains of St Mary’s Augustinian abbey (WX015-003004-) while the outer feature (Wth c. 2-4m) is entangled with, and probably pre-dating an enclosure (WX015-003032-) just SE of the abbey. The outer ditch is also likely to be the V-shaped ditch (Wth of top 2.6m; max. D 1.7m), with lenses of charcoal and slag in the fill, encountered in monitoring (98E0132) a sewer pipe under the road outside the S edge of the graveyard. A sample of alder charcoal from this ditch produced a date of cal. AD 384-535 (1 sigma) (Ryan 1999, 8; excavations.ie 1999, 875).
Traces of the outer enclosure ditch were also encountered (Wth 2.5m; D 1.2m) at its W edge just E of the Castle where it had thirteenth and fourteenth century ceramics in its upper layers (Sweetman 1979, 224). At its N extent as it approaches a NW-SE stream a V-shaped ditch (Wth of top 4-5m; D 2m) was excavated (06E0780), but no dating material was recovered (Kavanagh 2006). The most substantial evidence of the outer ditch was recorded by Catherine McLoughlin who excavated (18E0526) 115m of it at SW (2020, 2020a). It was a fairly uniform feature, being flat-bottomed (Wth of top c. 3m; Wth of base 1.1m; c. D 1.5m) with silts at the base together with charcoal, two samples of which produced C14 dates of cal. AD 659-851 and cal. AD 727-940. There was no evidence of an accompanying bank. Following a period of silting these ditches were backfilled in a single event, although the fosse was still partly open in the late twelfth century when the Anglo-Normans arrived at Ferns. (McLoughlin 2020a, 2020b)
The ditch of the inner ecclesiastical enclosure was encountered by Kate Taylor in excavation (E004633) on the line of a W-E water pipe (L c. 120m) from the R772 (N11) road to the stream and c. 90m NE of the cathedral. The ditch at this point is a complex feature that was re-cut at least twice. The base of the original ditch is V-shaped (Wth of top 1.41m; D 0.92m) with up-cast on the E side, perhaps forming an outer bank. The ditch was recut (Wth of top 2.75m; D 0.27) as rather flat-bottomed (Wth 1.75m), over-cutting by 0.2m the W edge of the earlier ditch, and redeposited material was added to the E and W (Taylor and Hurley 2021, 21-2). Very little survives of this re-cut as it was superseded by a larger ditch (Wth 4.5m; D 0.61m) with fourteen fills of silty clays. Numerous artefacts were recovered from this including iron slag and knife blades as well as pottery, some of which suggested that the ditch remained visible as a shallow hollow for a long time (ibid. 33-4).
The inner enclosure ditch might also have been encountered in excavation (E004633) by Kate Taylor during 2019 at two points on the curving Station Road just SW of the graveyard where a ditch (Wth of top 1.45m plus; D 0.9m plus) could be interpreted as the perimeter of the inner enclosure (Taylor and Hurley 2021, 48-9). This line of the inner enclosure is continued by two ditches (L 60m plus) placed c. 15m apart NW-N of the church and cathedral in the large triangular field (dims c. 365m NW-SE; c. 100m NE-SW at S) N of the N11. The ditches were first encountered in archaeological testing (06E0780) by J. Kavanagh when they were interpreted as possibly relating to a rath (WX015-003029-), but the ditches were also recorded in a gradiometer survey (21R0297) by G. Dowling (2021, 17-18) and are even visible as features on OSI images (2005) and Digital Globe (2012-13). Ditches relating to the field system (WX015-003034-) also extend into this area and were also recorded by Dowling (2021, 18). This intimates that the inner enclosure is a large oval area (dims c. 340m N-S; c. 175m E-W), and almost its entire course can be traced.

The results of the gradiometer survey, together with the McLoughlin excavation and the tantalizing traces of the outer enclosure encountered elsewhere, indicate that it is very large (max. ext. dims c. 590m E-W; c. 430m N-S), with the early church displaced SE of its centre. At the McLoughlin excavation the Anglo-Norman horizon is marked by well-pits, gullies, the boundaries of burgage plots, and two post-built structures, as well as extensive evidence of metal-working. Seven well-pits or water-holes (diam. c. 2m; D 1.6-1.8m) were dug along the line of the ecclesiastical fosse to collect water and their fills contained pottery dating from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 22 February 2019
Amended: 18 November 2020; 26 February 2021; 7 December 2021

References

Dowling, G. 2021 Geophysical Survey Report: Lugatober townland. N16 Lugatober (Drumkilsellagh to Lugnagall) Road Project, Co. Sligo (A000079, R000558). Unpublished geophysical survey report prepared for AMS and Sligo County Council.

Kavanagh, J. 2006 Archaeological test excavation Report at Ferns Upper, Ferns, County Wexford. Licence: 06E0780. Unpublished report, Icon Archaeology

Ryan, J. 1999 Archaeological Findings from Monitoring of Phase 1 of Ferns Sewerage Scheme, Co. Wexford. Licence No. 98E0132. Unpublished report, Mary Henry Archaeological Services

McLoughlin, C. 2020b Preliminary Archaeological Excavation Report, Castleland, Ferns, Co. Wexford. Licence: 18E0526. Unpublished report, Stafford/McLoughlin

McLoughlin, C. 2020a From early to late: uncovering medieval Ferns. Archaeology Ireland, 132, vol. 34, No. 2, 30-4.

Taylor, K. and Hurley, K. 2021 R772 Ferns Village Pavement Scheme Phase 2, Ferns Co. Wexford. Stage (iii) Post-excavation Assessment Report. Licence: E004633. Unpublished Report, TVAS

Dowling, G. 2015 Geophysical investigations at Ferns, Co. Wexford. Licence No. 15R042. Unpublished report, The Discovery Programme

Sweetman, P.D. 1979 Archaeological excavations at Ferns Castle, Co. Wexford. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 79C, 217-45.