The sun once again split the stones and the hard work in the heat was punctuated by a large number of distinguished visitors. The kiln was all but removed as the day progressed at the west end of the excavation, while elsewhere, some cuttings may be down to undisturbed boulder clay. It is a wonderful …
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Day 12 – Cereal Kilner
The Kiln has been such a constant presence on the site that it seems peculiar to see it gradually disappear. But we must dig it to understand it. John Sunderland is the ‘cereal kilner’. Penny Johnson is on her 99th environmental sample at Beaubec. Go Penny! Bronagh and Oliver were finding lots of animal bones …
Day 11 – Drains
We were delighted to welcome Elizabeth Gardener, Engineer, University of Notre Dame, to the site. She will be here for two weeks and will be studying our upstanding remains. Bernie and Alex, the dynamic duo, have been following what may turn out to be another drain running under the southern section of medieval wall. Meanwhile, …
Day 10 – The Great Barn of Beaubec
Over the last two weeks as we have peeled back the centuries at Bey More, a great Cistercian barn is emerging from the earth. The walls of this massive building are visible now in almost every cutting. Environmental sampling is identifying rich concentrations of grain, peas and beans that may have been stored there. We …
Day 9 – Medieval coin found!
Aidan Giblin caused pandemonium on the site this afternoon when he discovered a medieval coin in the side of the lintelled drain and we all rushed to his cutting to examine and photograph it. Through the day Catherine did a beautiful job emptying out a pit that produced large quantities of wheat grains when a …
Beaubec art blog post 002
Touching time by John Sunderland One of the artworks I have been making over the last fortnight is a drawing using mud, pencil, charcoal and white oil pastel on drafting paper. This landscape work has been photographed as it progresses – the final works from this piece are intended to be photographs of the drawing …
Day 8 – Those bones, those bones, those dry bones…
The spotlight shifted to the far end of the site today to the cuttings near the service tower. Heroic removal of a difficult stony layer has uncovered a dark loamy layer rich in shells, large burnt bones and medieval pottery. This is medieval waste. Kieran Campbell has identified the pottery as local Drogheda ware dating …
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Day 7 – A hive of industry
Today was a beautiful day on the excavation and all was ordered like a well-oiled machine. Three cuttings have made it down to the medieval layers with some exotic medieval pots coming to light. Other cuttings are not far behind. News came today from our publicist Grace McCullen that the Drogheda Independent had published an …
Beaubec art blog post 001
Touching time by John Sunderland I have for long time now been fascinated with the processes of both art and archaeology, of how the crafts of both disciplines require a degree of intuition, of knowing and yet not quite knowing where one is going and feeling a path through the materials. Whether this is excavating …
Day 6 – Find that wall
The team returned to their cuttings with a vengeance this morning determined to resolve all the issues brought up by last week’s digging. Tops of partially demolished walls appeared and a lintelled drain meanders through the width of a cutting. A charcoal/burnt clay spread is increasing in size by the minute and the rumour has …
Beaubec Excavations 