EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Tipperary
Cormac’s Chapel, St. Patrick’s Rock, Cashel
Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Settlement
Grid Ref: S07484092 (207483/140924)
SMR No: TS061:025
Excavation Licence: 92E0202
Excavation Duration/Year: December 1992; Summer 1993
Site Director: B. Hodkinson (Office of Public Works)
The Rock of Cashel is a 60m high outcrop of limestone towering over the town of Cashel. It
was the historic seat of the Kings of Munster and a significant ecclesiastical foundation
containing a rich architectural heritage including a c. 1100 Round Tower, a thirteenth-century
cathedral and Cormac’s Chapel (1127-34). Cormac’s Chapel was excavated over the course of
two periods in 1992 and 1993 as part of ongoing conservation works by the Office of Public
Works. The excavation uncovered evidence for four phases of burial and two churches predating
Cormac’s Chapel as well as early occupation surfaces and features.
The area lying between Cormac’s Chapel and the chancel of the cathedral as well as the
interior of the north tower, chancel and one half of Cormac’s Chapel nave were excavated
down to subsoil. Three areas were excavated sequentially (Fig. 266); Area 1 was situated to
the east of the north tower, Area 2 lay to the west of the north tower in the enclosed area
outside the north door of the chapel and Area 3 lay within the chapel. The following
description is based on a short interim report published in a local county journal during
continuing post-excavation work.
Eight possible phases were identified during the excavation. It was suggested that Phase A
saw a possibly secular use of the site between the sixth and ninth century A.D. Early
occupation surfaces were identified in the three areas in the form of rock-cut postholes and in
an east-west linear feature in front of the chapel door in Area 2. Evidence for limited burial
interment was revealed towards the end of Phase A and possibly associated with this phase
were the first burials in Area 1 and possibly a single early burial in Area 2.
Phase B saw the establishment of a possible ninth/tenth century cemetery and wooden
church followed by a possible hiatus until c. 1100. This phase of burials in Area 1 was
orientated upon a possible wooden church in the chancel of the chapel in Area 3. The burials
appear to have been restricted to the east of the site with a contemporary occupation surface
being identified further west inside the chapel nave in Area 3. The occupation surface inside
the nave consisted of a stony surface containing a large quantity of animal bone as well as
two sherds of unidentified pottery. A substantial build up of deposits over this occupation
surface and the posts of the wooden church followed. There appears to have been some form
of break in the ecclesiastical connections of the site in the tenth/eleventh centuries as
reflected in the historical sources.
Phase C saw the wooden church being replaced by a stone church lying beneath the present
cathedral. This phase of burials in the graveyard was orientated upon this new building while
the graveyard extended further south over the area formally occupied by the wooden church.
A roughly paved surface associated with some charred grain was excavated in Area 2 which
suggests that the western end of the site continued as an open space. A circular stone
feature which may have functioned as some form of storage pit, was excavated to the
northwest in Area 2 and could be contemporary or slightly later than the paving. A cut
feature filled with loose limestone rubble and a possibly west faced edge was identified in
Area 2 along the line of the north tower and possibly under the south wall of the nave and
could have operated as some form of division between the church/graveyard in the east and
the open space to the west.
Phase D saw the construction of Cormac’s Chapel (1127-34) and the early use of this building
till the mid-thirteenth century. Burial continues in Area 1 while the graveyard appears to have
extended into the area to the west of the north tower for the first time. The last four phases
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