Settlement cluster in Rathmolyon

The church of Rathmolyon was held by the Knights Hospitallers of Kilmainham (DU018-020026-) since the early thirteenth century (Sheehy 1962, vol. 1, 148-9), and a settlement may have developed around it. In the Civil Survey (1654) Rathmullian is described as ‘a church and Divers Farm houses’ (Simington 1940, 178), and it is represented as a church with some cabins on the Down Survey (1656-8) barony map. The settlement is depicted as an E-W street village on a Scalé map of 1767, and the present cross-roads first appears on Larkin’s map of 1812. Archaeological monitoring and excavation (07E0922) by D. Shine of a trench for a water pipe W of the graveyard recorded the rath (ME042-020002-) after which the townland and parish are named as well as evidence of metal-working (ME042-020003-) and tillage plots related to the settlement (excavations.ie 2008:960, 961). A band of E-W furrows (Wth c. 10m) overlies the interior of the rath, and just S of the graveyard a large ditch (Wth of top 2.1m; max. D 1.13m) was recorded from which a medieval blade was recovered. This might have formed a field boundary with a single post-hole just S of it, and only agricultural activity represented further S by a smaller drain and five furrows. This created a narrow field (Wth c. 20m) and could represent another plot or messauge of the settlement that was probably centered on the church and the E-W street. (Shine 2009, 16-19) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload; 26 April, 2021