Beaubec Excavations

There was a celebratory atmosphere on the site today with the news in the morning that it was Shauna’s birthday and Craig had kindly brought along a gorgeous McCloskey cream cake for the occasion. Much digging was needed during the rest of the day to compensate for that early sugar rush. We also heard the exciting news that both Billy and Deirdre had received Kay Mahon scholarships in UCD. Cutting D(on’t let me down) was certainly not letting us down and the team in this cutting have exposed Billy’s finely built kiln. The baton was passed to Tom and Alan to empty the large pit in Cutting C(an’t buy me love). Peter, Lennon and Shauna have almost bottomed the area of the Cutting outside (west of) the stone wall and found some very nice medieval pottery. At the other (eastern) end of the cutting, Craig and Andy were investigating a possible entrance feature. We welcomed a number of visitors to the site including Lucita who, with John Mc Cullen, are key officers of the Kilsharvan Community Council. Georgina Callow from Beamore visited the site. She is housing some of our team at her beautiful mews. After work we went down to Mornington to see where the Beaubec monks had land and boats in the thirteenth century. This also involved a brief detour via Moran’s.

Volunteer Catherine Duggan-Mahon is introduced to Adam and Craig. She worked with them to bring down the extension to the eastern end of Cutting C(an’t by me love).

It was Shauna’s birthday today. Happy Birthday!

Lucita Shorter (Treasurer of the Kilsharvan Community Council) with John McCullen. We are grateful to the KCC for their role in managing the award received from the FBD Trust.

Tom (left) and Alan (right) empty the pit in Cutting C(an’t buy me love).

Bowl of a kiln in Cuttings A(bbey Road) and D(on’t let me down). Photo: William SInes.

Bursarians Deirdre Kelly and William Sines. Every year, the UCD School of Archaeology offers three Kay Mahon Bursaries. Ms Mahon had a life-long passion for Irish archaeology and these bursaries are funded from the generous bequest that Kay made to UCD to assist MA students. She was hopeful that her generous gift would help to encourage scholars to focus on their own Irish heritage and continue to value the rich history of Ireland. The Beaubec excavation team are very proud of the fact that two of the three prizes awarded this year were granted to members of our excavation crew and we are thrilled that they are being enthusiastically welcomed into the UCD post-graduate community.

A wet start to the day didn’t deter our brilliant team who worked on regardless. We were all delighted to have our pottery expert Rosanne Meenan back with us. In Cutting C(an’t buy me love) the famous ditch team Peter, Eric, Lennon and Richard have exposed and emptied a gully which probably pre-dates the stone wall and Geraldine has been emptying a stone-filled pit that probably held a a large timber upright. We extended this cutting east and south to capture the external face of the stone wall and ground floor entrance (?) with the help of Ailish and her two students buddies Luke and Nathan. Cutting D(on’t let me down) is looking particularly impressive with a curving section of wall and Billy’s stone lined kiln. Cutting D(on’t let me down) also incorporates an intriguing carved sandstone mullion. Burnt wood as well as a lot of burnt cereal is coming out of this feature.

Rosanne Meenan joined the excavation team today. She is shown here holding a handle sherd fond today in Cutting D(on’t let me down).

The baulk between Cuttings A(bbey Road) and D(on’t let me down) was removed during the course of the wet day.

After the removal of the baulk, by the end of the day, the kiln is coming into clear view and the wall with its slight curve extends to the west.

Ailish, Luke and Nathan de-sodded the extension to Cutting C(an’t buy me love).

Laura is seen in the photo surveying the wall in Cutting A(bbey Road).

John Mc Cullen has very generously provided the team with a steady supply of reading material from his back catalogue. John has always believed that Beaubec is a special place and we are the fortunate people that are able to unearth its amazing story. Matt and Billy spent the day recording the sections and planning all the features in Cutting A(bbey Road). In its extension Cutting D(on’t let me down) Sadhbh, Ailish, Deirdre and Hugh have already exposed the section of stone wall identified in the geophysical survey. Penny volunteered (yes, volunteered!) to go back and work in the waterlogged ditch in Cutting B(eatles for sale) with her able assistant Cumhall. He and Craig had heroically emptied over 90 buckets of water from the ditch this morning. We had to say our good-byes to Elliott and Oliver today as they are heading back to Ohio in the morning (go Mud hens). They were a great help to the excavation. Thank you guys! – and to your mom Ruth for making the delicious banana muffins. In the afternoon Cutting C(an’t buy me love ) was attracting a great deal of attention as a large circular pit was uncovered by Alan and Tom in the centre of the Cutting (and probably near the centre of the building). This needs to be sectioned to see if it might be a large timber posthole and Billy provided a master class on how it should be done. Sean Collins and Pascal McGuffen came to the site and regaled us with stories of playing in tunnels in these fields as children. Larry Lacey (ancestor of Walter de Lacey and a sponsor of the Beaubec Excavations) also called down and gave us an interesting historical reference for the site from a book written by onetime Drogheda resident Colin Veach.

Oliver puts the finishing touches on the wall revealed in Cutting C(an’t buy me love). He, and his brother Oliver were a great asset to the excavation.

The oval pit was revealed by trowellers Tom and Alan.

Billy (left) introduces Tom and Alan to the niceties of pit sectioning.

Visitors to the site today included Sean Collins and Pascal McGuffen. This photo shows them examining finds in the finds processing office.

For generations on the McCullen farm, whenever there was a hole to be dug, a farm gate to be levered, or a stone to be wedged into place, the question has always been “what tool should we use for that job”. For generations the answer has always been “Mr Pokey”. Mr Pokey is a heavy Iron bar with a flat top for hammering and a chiselled end. It has proven to be an essential tool on the site and is particularly useful for straightening sections. The stone and brick filled pit in Cutting B(eatles for sale) could not have been emptied without his assistance. Thank you Mr Pokey. The photo shows Mr Pokey (right) with one of his ranging rod friends.

John McCullen presents Ailish with a copy of a leaflet he wrote on the antiquities of the Kilsharvan area. From left to right are: Deirdre, Billy, Ailish, John and Sadhbh.

Comhall and Craig emptied 90 buckets of water (that is 900 litres of water) out of the moat so that Penny could continue to investigate the deposits. Homeric!

The moat is about 0.80m deep and has perfectly preserved organic material in its bottom layer.

A close up of the kiln-like feature in A(bbey Road).

There was a great buzz around the site today with new volunteers Comhal and Ethel arriving and old friends and colleagues paying us a visit. At time it was as energised as a Cidernauts concert. All Cuttings were fully staffed. We all got very excited when Penny, who was wet sieving soil samples from the bottom of the ditch, identified part of the rim of a wooden vessel. Locals Laureen Buckley and Victor Buckley were given the tour and then interrogated for their expertise. Victor had a look at our clay pipes and has identified seventeenth century to nineteenth century clay pipes from Drogheda and Dublin. Local archaeologist, Kieran Campbell examined our pottery and medieval ceramic ridge tiles. The medieval pottery is largely thirteenth century from Drogheda and France. The ridge tiles found in Cutting B(eatles for sale ) are particularly interesting because they incorporate a louvre feature which would have allowed smoke to come out of the roof. Nicki Matthews and her son Hugh worked tirelessly in Cutting D(on’t let me down) and thanks for the fabulous chocolate biscuit cake. Richard, Oliver and Elliott took over from Laura with the wet sieving of the lower ditch deposits and found more wood and bone. We have great hopes for this layer.

A piece of a wooden bowl was found in samples from the Moat and processed by Penny Johnston

Elliott, Richard and Oliver washing the wet moat samples through the sieve.

Meath archaeologist Kieran Campbell undertook a preliminary study of our Medieval pottery.

Victor Buckley (second from right) discusses clay pipe typology with members of the excavation team. Laureen (second from left) will help us with the human remains, should we find any.

Billy Sines (left) talking to Oliver and Martin from the Bailey and Blake film crew about the site

For information on film makers Bailey and Blake see
https://www.facebook.com/baileyandblake/

They filmed “The River Liffey Stories” which highlights the history, archaeology and communities in the towns that the river passes through. For an example of their work, featuring the voice of Billy Sines see:
https://www.facebook.com/leinsterheritage/

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John McCullen has this sign, created by Peter McCullen, outside his gate welcoming people to the dig.

A rare photo captures co-director doing some work (or at least leaning on his pick handle). In this photo are, from left to right, Comhall (partially obscured by the wheel barrow), Matt, Nicki, Hugh and Ethel.

The northern end of Cutting A(bbey Road). Some are now theorising that these depressions could be related to spade cultivation.

Finds recovered from the lowest medieval layer at the southern end of Cutting A(bbey Road) include the bones of a small mammal, but what kind of mammal?

Close up of the teeth found in Cutting A(bbey Road).

Cutting A(bbey Road) continues to attract much of the attention with the revelation of a possible  medieval drain that contains medieval pottery and small animal/bird bones. James helped out in this cutting today. Local resident environmental archaeologist Nikolah Gilligan called in with her son Túán and was very tempted to join Penny in the waterlogged ditch in Cutting B(eatles for sale). Tom has been looking at the roof slates from the ditch fill in Cutting B(eatles for Sale) and has made a number of keen observations; they were sourced from a number of quarries and follow the graduated pattern from small to large slates previously identified at Bective Abbey. Laura who has a particular attraction to wet archaeology has been wet sieving the lower ditch fill with excellent results; she has retrieved lots of pottery, wood and small animal bones. In Cutting C(an’t buy me love) Craig and famous Malcolm, with the help of newest volunteer Ailish (“a little help from my friends”, you might say), have been exposing the foundations of the medieval stone wall and a level below the eighteenth century avenue. The ditch crew, now in Cutting D(on’t let me down) are really missing their very wet ditch and must be suffering from a slight case of Stockholm syndrome. They really began to identify with those muddy deposits. Thanks to Catriona for the tea today.                                             .

Entering into the Beatles spirit, Billy went home last night and made up these wonderful cover sheets for the context sheet folders.

Billy and Sadhbh dug in the lower layers of A(bbey Road) for the entire day. This photo shows Matt, Shauna, Billy, Sadhbh, Túán, Nikolah and James.

Same as the above, but Matt took this photo from the other direction. Cosmic!

Laura wet sieves the deposits from the lowest level of the ditch (moat?) in cutting B(eatles for sale). Penny (not shown) thinks she has finally reached the bottom.

Tom working out his slate typology. We hope it agrees with the Bective results.

Our newest volunteer is Malcolm from Liverpool (brought into this world by the mother of Paul McCartney. Malcolm named and worked in our newest Cutting D(on’t let me down). We hope this cutting won’t let us down. It is positioned to find the full extent of the possible corn-drying kiln and perhaps get the turn of the wall that runs through Cutting A(bbey Road). Our courageous ditch crew (Peter, Lennon, Shauna and Eric) in Cutting B(eatles for sale) were given a mini vacation in the dry Cutting D(on’t let me down). The ditch crew also paid a visit to the finds room to admire the medieval ridge tiles they found this week. These have now been cleaned and catalogued by Caitriona. Environmental archaeologist Penny volunteered to go down into the ditch and within a few minutes identified cereal grains, blackberry seeds and a plum stone. Matt planned and photographed the area of eighteenth century cobbling, beautifully exposed yesterday by Alan and Andy in Cutting C(an’t buy me love). In Cutting A(bbey road) there are a number of intriguing features emerging and we hope that a possible corn drying kiln, identified by Billy, will soon be uncovered in Cutting D(ont’ let me down). Great to see Conor Brady and his son Killian.  Thanks for the buns. Thanks also to Conall for all his hard work.

Malcolm, Craig and Matt; not quite old enough to have played with the Beatles.

In keeping with our Beatle-themed excavation, Andy Hogg found a beetle larva in the upper deposits of Cutting C(an’t buy me love).

The cobbled layer in Cutting C(an’t buy me love).

The sods in Cutting D(on’t let me down) were stripped in record time by Craig, Malcolm and Conall. Malcolm was brought into this world with the assistance of Paul McCartney’s mother. According to the unassailably reliable source, Wikipedia, Mary Patricia (née Mohin) McCartney (1909–56), was a midwife and the family’s primary wage earner. Before her early death at the age of 47 she was midwife at Malcolm’s birth. Malcolm also owns a ruler that once belonged to Ringo Starr. In mid-1956, Ringo held a position as an apprentice machinist at a Liverpool equipment manufacturer. While working at the facility, Ringo became a fervent admirer of skiffle music and his career began. Years later, Malcolm worked in the same factory and inherited Ringo’s ruler.

Laura moved into cutting A(bbey Road) to work in the ditch-like features first identified by Billy Sines.

Penny Johnston sampling in the waterlogged ditch (Moat?).

On a sadder note: Google, in its wisdom, sent Craig a photograph from his album with the heading ‘a year ago today’. Exactly a year ago we were excavating at the Cursus in Newgrange Farm. To the right of this Photo is Ann Redhouse of Newgrange Farm, our gracious host for the month. It is a beautiful picture of Ann who is clearly enjoying the tea break. Ann passed away recently and a service celebrating her life was held just last Sunday (7 July). We all remember her fondly and extend our greatest sympathy to her family.

In Cutting C(an’t buy me love) Alan and Andy have uncovered a rough cobbled surface that is part of the Avenue that ran up to the Pearsons house (1720). Meanwhile, Deirdre, Craig and Eddie have come down on the foundation of a wall. Peter, Eric and Lennon battled on with the very, very wet and waterlogged ditch in Cutting B(eatles for sale). There seems to be no bottom. Elliott and Oliver have been working their way through the ditch deposits finding more bone and pottery. Billy allowed Matthew and Geraldine to spend some of the day in  his Cutting A(bbey Road) to work with Sadhbh and Tom. Tom, by the way, did a great job with the tea today. First time visitors Hugh and Eve helped to sieve the spoil from the Cutting.  We welcomed the Newton family – Ailish, Cormac and Dave –to the site in the company of local artist Richard Moore. We even laid in some entertainment when Eddie played them a few tunes at tea break. Eddie also put up his drone, and took wonderful images of the site.

Photographer Alex McCullen visited the site earlier in the week and sent us these lovely photos, his intriguing take on our excavation.

Another photograph by Alex McCullen.

Another photograph by Alex McCullen.

Ed Lynch puts his drone through its paces, Alan looks on.

Just one of the fantastic photos taken by Ed with his drone.

A drone photo showing Cuttings B(eatles for sale) and C(an’t buy me love) during excavation (photo Ed Lynch).

First time visitors to the site today were Hugh (centre) and Eve (right). Callum is an experienced troweller and has already made a considerable contribution to the excavation.

Richard Moore, Cormac Newton, Ed , Tom, David Newton and Ailish Newton during tea break. The Drogheda fleadh came early to the excavation.

Ed serenades Tom, but with a traditional tune rather than a Beatles number.

Sadhbh adopts and unusual and extremely uncomfortable diving posture to put the finishing touches on the northern end of Cutting A(bbey Road).

We were all so delighted for the crew in Cutting B(eatles for Sale) as good things come to those who “wait”. The patience shown by Peter, Lennon and Eric in Cutting B(eatles for Sale) over the last few days, emptying out a very wet and heavy ditch fill, was finally rewarded today with their discovery of a rich cache of ceramic ridge tiles and slates from the collapsed roof of a medieval building. This is very strong evidence supporting the view that the upstanding structures are medieval. Penny has sampled this lower ditch fill today and we are looking forward to what it produces. We moved Sophie on from her slumber in Cutting C(an’t buy me love) and started digging. Veteran excavator Ed Lynch arrived from Sligo and together with Craig and Deirdre set a serious pace, exposing a wall and avenue surface with Alan and Andy at the other end of the Cutting. In Cutting A(bbey Road) our French contingent excavated the medieval layer whilst Tom and Sadhbh bottomed the Cutting in the northern end. Poor Billy got the short straw and had to make the tea for the day.  But he was lucky because Clare Tuffy had made her ‘Beaubec’ blackcurrant jam and banana bread (thank you Clare) and Kate Sweetman brought her sponge cake. Billy’s tea was a gastronomic delight and he was quick to take all the credit. We welcomed Hugh Matthews who diligently sieved medieval layers with Anelia, Elliott and Oliver and found animal bones pottery and shells. Matthew and Geraldine began surveying the gatehouse.

We had such a large and wonderful crew today, it was time for a group photo. Lined up in front of the ‘gatehouse’ are Alan, Tomás, Deirdre, Andy, Craig, Catriona, Ed, Peter, Lennon, Billy. In the front row are Sadhbh, Morgane, Cindy, Marie, Hugh, Oliver, Laura, Elliott, Geraldine and site mascot Sophie. Missing from the photograph are Matthew, Penny and Eric.

Ed Lynch from Sligo (but originally from Bettystown, Co. Meath, is a long time family friend of the McCullens. Here he is seen with Ann and Ruth. Ed’s super, bionic shovel is on the right.

Laura in her office assisting Catriona in processing the finds.

Co-director Matthew Stout surveying the ‘Gatehouse’. Because of the concentration of finds at the eastern end of Cutting B(eatles for sale) we are beginning to think that it might truly be a medieval building.

Ed Lynch is examining the lintel in the ‘gatehouse’. He believes it to be oak which opens up the possibility that it could be dated dendrochronologically.

All good things come to those who “wait”. Lennon and Peter (with Eric) uncovered slates and ridge tiles, the remains of a medieval roof, in the waterlogged layers in the eastern end of Cutting B(eatles for sale). All of a sudden, the attention shifted away from Cutting A(bbey road).

Hugh Matthews proudly displays the finds recovered from the sieving of the medieval layers from Cutting A(bbey Road).

Archaeology is not about hunting for treasure, but it is nice when you find such a wealth of medieval pottery, bone, shells and environmental evidence.

Just part of the beautiful French jug uncovered yesterday (Monday) in cutting A(bbey Road).

This brigade of French volunteers trowelled down to the undisturbed in the southern end of Cutting A(bbey Road).

We climbed back into our trenches this morning and proceeded to uncover more of Bey More’s past.  Cutting A(bbey road)  caused the first  stir of the morning when Sadhbh found part of a beautiful jug (possibly French) with a strap handle. Tom revealed more of the stone wall identified in the geophysics. At the other end of the Cutting, Billy has also been following the stone wall while Craig has been finding iron objects with slag and baked clay which may indicate industrial activity. Cutting B(eatles for sale) is coming down on undisturbed boulder clay at one end, and a ditch is being emptied in the other. Penny continues to process medieval deposits from Cutting A(bbey Road) and has identified large quantities of wheat, oats and barley. Catriona and Laura are valiantly keeping up with the cleaning and cataloguing of the finds. A warm welcome to our two new volunteers on the site Deirdre and Andy.

We would like to excavate Cutting C(an’t buy me love) but it will have to wait until Sophie wakes up.

Co-director Geraldine Stout spent the first week describing the ruins in the field. Now she is getting closer to the action, working with Peter and Shauna in bottoming the eastern end of Cutting B(eatles for sale). These waterlogged deposits produced iron objects, shells and one sherd of brown ware.

New volunteers on the site are Deirdre Kelly (a proud graduate of IT Sligo) and Andy Hogg (an undergraduate at Dundalk IT).

An important aspect of quality control on the excavation is the sieving of the medieval layers. This ensures that all the smallest sherds and animal bone are recovered. This photo shows (from left) Oliver, Anelia, Hannah, Laura and Elliott at work on the sieve. Thanks to Conor Brady for the loan of the sieve.

John McCullen identified this slab of sandstone and today some of the crew (Peter, Lennon and Richard) from Cutting B(eatles for sale) turned it over. As John suspected, it was a piece of carved door or window moulding, probably from the original grange buildings.

The finds and environmental samples are processed in this beautifully restored shed on the McCullen farm. Here, Wes is the mascot. Penny and Catriona are the humans shown in this photo.

Penny Johnston hard at work on processing the environmental samples.

Catriona Devane enters details of the many finds into the database.

Hannah McCullen (left) explains some of the finer points of medieval settlement to her sister Faye. Hannah has put forward the possibility that the a motte and bailey was located in the townland of Bey More.

Tom eats his lunch perched high above the ground on our pallet furniture, safe from food-crazed dogs.

It was a mellow day at Bey More, taking stock of all the week’s discoveries and catching up on recording. Matt and Lennon put a sondage (exploratory trench) through the west end of Cutting B(eatles for sale) to find out whether we had reached the bottom boulder clay. This trench showed that the material below the eighteenth century lane was re-deposited boulder clay because there was charcoal and pottery in it. Eliott suggested that this soil may have been brought in to level up the ground before the eighteenth century avenue was laid. In Cutting A(bbey road) a rich medieval layer at both ends of the Cutting produced more medieval cooking ware, animal bones and metal objects. The sieve is now up and in operation thanks to Billy. Another sherd of Saintonge ware was detected on Oliver’s watch. Penny has been busy processing soil samples, which contain medieval peas and wheat grains. Great to have visitors to try our stories out on! One story is that the large pit in Cutting B(eatles for sale) could be a fallen tree that was dug out, after which the hole left behind was filled in with brick and stone. Some of the things we said today.

Visitors to the site today included Grace McCullen and Richard Gerrard.

Penny Johnston, environmentalist, shows two members of the large McCullen clan the peas and grains recovered from samples taken in the medieval layers.

This small pit or post hole produced medieval pottery. It was excavated by Penny. The photo shows the feature just prior to its removal.

Billy not only knows which way is up, but also which way is north.

Cutting A(bbey Road) at the end of day 5. Sadhbh and Tom are tidying up.

Callum took time out from his busy footballing career to help out on the excavation. Here he can be seen trowelling the deposits that back the wall facing representing the lower courses of a wall running north from the upstanding remains. Visible at the top (west) of Cutting B(eatles for sale), is the sondage cut through the redeposited boulder clay.