Curragh Excursion

RSAI group at one of a row of small mounds on the Little Curragh

This year’s Autumn Excursion was to the Curragh, Co. Kildare and took place on Saturday, September 24th. A full bus departed from the Society’s house at 9.30 am and our first visit was to the site of Great Connell Priory near Newbridge. This was one of the wealthiest and most important medieval Augustinian priories in Ireland, but today no trace of the buildings survives above ground apart from part of the east end of the Lady Chapel forming part of the eastern boundary of a small graveyard. Con Manning outlined the history of the priory and made suggestions as to where the precinct and main buildings would have been. One of our members, Paul Mulligan, while on site, discovered the remains of the much mutilated sedilia incorporated in the south wall of the overgrown graveyard. This feature can be seen in the only antiquarian illustration of the priory, that of 1781 by Austin Cooper.


Our next stop was the Little Curragh, where Pádraig Clancy gave us an overview of the archaeology of the Curragh which is one of the largest barrow cemeteries in the country. He has recently completed an MA in NUI Galway on this subject. He showed us a number of barrows, two of which were excavated by Seán P. Ó Ríordáin in the 1940s and one of these produced a possible live burial dating from the Iron Age. Joanna Lee described the results of Geophysics, carried out on a row of small mounds. This work suggested that they were prehistoric barrows rather than more recent features associated with the army. We were also shown a linear earthwork called the Race of the Black Pig. Members found it interesting to walk on the Curragh, which, with almost 5,000 acres, is probably the largest lowland unenclosed commonage in Ireland. There was, however, a strong cold wind and all were glad to reach the warmth of the nearby hotel for lunch.
Padraig Clancy talking to RSAI group on the Little Curragh, 24 September 2005

After lunch we headed across the main road towards the camp and stopped at the military cemetery. From this point on we were joined by the members of the Kildare Archaeological Society with their President, Elizabeth Connelly, who warmly welcomed us to Co. Kildare. Our speaker at the cemetery was Reg Darling, the chairman of the Curragh Local History Group, who gave us an outline history of the Curragh, the Curragh Camp and some interesting information on people buried in the cemetery. We then visited the meeting rooms and museum of the Curragh Local History Group in the camp, where Reg Darling described the exhibits. At this point Hugh Crawford, Lands Officer with the Department of Defence, welcomed us to the Curragh and outlined for us the management of this unique landscape in the past and today.

With special clearance from the army and watched over by military police we then visited the Gibbet Rath, which is in a restricted area because the magazine is located beside it. Pádraig Clancy described the archaeology of this very impressive ringfort-like earthwork, while Joanna Lee discussed the results of geophysical survey, carried out on this site. Buffeted again by a cold wind our President, Aideen Ireland, thanked and made presentations to the speakers.

Further reading

Pádraig Clancy’s Archaeology Ireland Heritage Guide: The Curragh, Co. Kildare – the archaeology of an ancient grassland has just been produced (three days after the outing) by Wordwell Ltd and is available from them at PO Box 69, Bray, Co Wicklow (01 2765221 or www.wordwellbooks.com). It will be received free by all subscribers to Archaeology Ireland with the Autumn number.

S.P. Ó Ríordáin, Excavation of some earthworks on the Curragh, Co. Kildare, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 53C (1950), 249-77.

Con Costello, A most delightful station: The British Army on the Curragh of Kildare, Ireland, 1855-1922, The Collins Press, Cork 1966.

Hugh Crawford’s prize-winning essay on the Lock Hospital associated with the Curragh Camp will be published in the forthcoming issue of the Journal of the County Kildare Archaeological Society (available from late October).