REMAINS discovered in the grounds of Down Cathedral eight years ago were laid to rest last week.
In March 2018, contractors were removing ground at the site to make way for the replica High Cross at Down Cathedral when they discovered remains. A total of 14 skeletons were discovered and nine were removed by archaeologists from Queen’s University Belfast. Those skeletons were dated as being from the late Middle Ages, between 1030 and 1330.
Now that archaeologists have taken the information they need, Dean Henry Blair was able to lay to rest the remains last week. He told the Mourne Observer why the occasion was important.
“We were able to re-inter them back home, as near as where we could put them in the part of the grave that is in keeping with their time. It is a step in closing the journey for those people.”
It is also an important moment for the life of the cathedral. The Dean said: “It finalises the installation of the High Cross because every part of that is complete.”
The re-interment ceremony took place on Thursday, immediately after the Communion Service. The bones were buried a few metres from St Patrick’s grave, and about 100 yards from the site of the new High Cross, where they were originally found.
The story of how the bones were discovered began in February 2018, when Down County Museum secured funding to construct the High Cross replica. That replica was designed using pieces of the original cross. The original cross dates from the 10th century and was moved to the cathedral in 1897. The museum gained permission from the cathedral to erect the replica High Cross.
Brian Sloan is the excavation director with the Centre for Community Archaeology at Queen’s. He explained how they came to find the bones.
“We thought that the safest place to erect [the replica High Cross] would be the modern grass verge beside the modern graveyard (at Down Cathedral). We thought that we would dig the foundations there and that would be sterile. Of course, it wasn’t. As we dug down, we found a medieval graveyard. We encountered 14 skeletons in all and we lifted nine: six neonatal burials, two adults and a child.”
They discovered that the people who were buried lived through the John de Courcy era. He was an Anglo-Norman knight who lived in Ireland from 1176 to 1204. He invaded and conquered the north of Ireland by defeating the last king of Ulaid, Ruaidhrí Mac Duinnshléibhe. He set up a series of monasteries and priories, including a Benedictine Abbey at the Hill of Down.
Brian said having the chance to study the remains of these people was a “privilege”. “It is a privilege in my job to look at this. To get a chance to look at the people themselves was just wonderful. These are the people who lived through the John de Courcy era. They lived through the development of this place as a cathedral. They lived through the Bruce invasions in the 14th century. These people saw it. It is a real key time in the development of Downpatrick Cathedral, when it becomes one of the most important monastic and ecclesiastical sites in Ireland.”
