Why not get involved in a medieval dig at Lurgan?

ABC Council’s Lurgan Townscape Heritage Scheme and Craigavon Historical Society are encouraging local people to join the team from Northern Archaeological Consultancy Ltd as they carry out excavation work at an early medieval (AD400-1100) site in Lurgan.

The site known as Kilmocholmóg, meaning ‘Church of my little Colman’, is located just off the Kilmore Road in Lurgan, and has long been regarded locally as a place of significant historical and archaeological importance.

From Monday 19 June to Friday 7 July (Monday-Friday), the team will focus on unearthing and discovering more information about the early medieval settlement, which was uncovered last year.

Finds from last year included the remains of a souterrain, which is an underground chamber used for storing food or providing refuge, a round house, and also prehistoric (4,000 BC) features such as knapped flint and pottery.

The dig is open to everyone, the community dig initiative has limited volunteer places available and will run two sessions per day as follow – morning session: 9.30am to 12pm and afternoon session: 1pm to 3.30pm.

Please note under 16s can attend with an accompanying adult by prior arrangement.

So, if you’re ready to dig deeper into your local history and heritage, get in touch by emailing [email protected].

Organised by the Craigavon Historical Society in partnership with the Lurgan Townscape Heritage Scheme, this community dig has been funded by National Lottery players through the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

More about Shankill Graveyard and Kilmocholmóg field

In February and March 2022, as part of our ‘Unearthing History’ project, we welcomed Dr Alastair Ruffell, a forensic geologist with Queen’s University Belfast’s School of Natural and Built Environment, and a team of postgraduate archaeology students to Lurgan to carry out two Ground Penetrating Radar Surveys.

The first GPR survey aimed to identify the location in Shankill Graveyard of a documented, but currently unlocated, mass famine grave containing 229 burials from 1847. A drone and elevation survey of the graveyard were carried out before the GPR survey which focused on three areas which have been commonly cited as the location of the said mass grave. However, the GPR surveys revealed that these areas were not the site of the mass grave, which sadly remains unlocated. To download a copy of the GPR report of Shankill Graveyard click the following link: Shankill_Report_March22

The second GPR survey tried to ascertain whether a field off the Kilmore Road, known locally as Kilmocholmóg, was the site of an ancient church and graveyard, which was in use until the mid-19th century. There are no markers above the surface to indicate the presence of such a churchyard but the tradition in the area is strong, with the last burial said to have taken place in c1840 when a lady from Tyrone was interned within the graveyard. Her coffin had to be carried across the newly built railway embankment which intersected the graveyard, leading to it falling out of use. The GPR survey did not identify any burials, but it did reveal a stone feature of interest, worthy of an archaeological investigation.