Lemanaghan Monastery
Lemanaghan is a significant multi-period complex that contains, amongst numerous other features, a Romanesque church (with several early Christian cross-slabs) a medieval rectangular building, a holy well, a possible oratory or anchorite and associated togher, a medieval tower house and an early medieval monastic enclosure. Several significant artefacts have been uncovered close to the site or are associated to the ecclesiastical site – not least the famed twelfth century St Manchan’s Shrine that is currently housed in Boher’s Catholic Church.
The Project
Beginning in 2023, the Irish Heritage School have supported community based research at the, which has included an extensive programme of photogrammetry, field survey and graveyard recording, an educational program with local schools and a community survey masterclass. On a commercial basis we have also acted as project archaeologists for conservation works at the tower house in 2024.
Our largest involvement at the site centred on a rescue excavation, and associated archaeological monitoring, at the site of the anchorite, ‘Mella’s Cell’, in 2025. These excavations took place after Storm Eowyn felled four mature trees, which exposed human remains representing a previously unknown burial ground. In total five inhumations and an amount of disarticulated human bone was recovered, which was estimated, after osteological analysis, as collectively amounting to 13 individuals. Radiocarbon dates from the assemblage indicate a burial ground that was in use from at least the seventh to tenth centuries.
Reference
- Shine, D. and Diana, A. 2026. Archaeological Monitoring Report at ‘Mella’s Cell’ Lemanaghan, County Offaly (SMR OF015-004006-) (License no. 25E0558). Unpublished archaeological excavation report on behalf of the National Monuments Service.
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