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From YouTube: Lurgan Stories: Digging Deeper into Kilmocholmóg
Description
Watch as evidence of an early medieval site is revealed during a community archaeological excavation of a site known as Kilmocholmóg (meaning ‘Church of my little Colman’), located just off the Kilmore Road, Lurgan.
You can download the final excavation report at: https://lurgantownscapeheritage.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Lurgan-Community-Excavation_Excavation-Report_-v2.pdf
The community dig was facilitated by the Northern Archaeological Consultancy Ltd. and sponsored by the Lurgan Townscape Heritage Scheme, which is supported by the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council and the Lottery Players, through The National Lottery Heritage Scheme. Find out more at: www.lurgantownscapeheritage.com
A
A
Just
between
Moira
and
Lurgan
appears
on
lots
of
historical
Maps
as
having
something
of
Interest
here,
but
then
sort
of
has
nothing.
So.
We've
done
a
few
reconnaissance
trips
here,
just
looking
at
the
landscape
and
ground
penetrating
radar,
which
has
focused
us
quite
well
into
a
couple
of
locations
here
with
features
linear
features
in
the
ground.
Let's
call
them
like
that,
one
of
which
has
a
right
angle
in
it.
So
it
could
be
a
building
or
the
intersection
of
two
their
cheese
or
other
linear
features,
another
one
which
which
crosses
it
and
is
far
larger.
A
So
it's
presumably
later,
but
how
much
later
we
couldn't
tell
it
could
be
700
years
later,
it
could
be
seven
years
later,
unlike
other
surveys,
where
we're
also
using
electromagnetics,
including
a
type
of
metal
detector.
We
are
only
using
ground
penetrating
radar
here,
because
it
looks
like
there's
no
significant
metal
in
the
ground
either
to
worry
about
or
to
be
as
archeology.
A
So
it's
just
non-metallic
features.
So
that's
roadways,
buildings,
burials,
trackways,
those
sorts
of
features
in
the
subsurface
and
the
ones
we've
got
are
about
80
centimeters
to
1.2
meters
in
depth.
Nothing
much
shallower
nothing
much
deeper.
Now
two
is
quite
informative.
It's
all
really
shallow.
Someone
did
something
here
quite
recently,
and
the
landowners
would
probably
remember
something
really
deep
is
geology,
but
it's
in
the
right
sort
of
range
for
something
archaeological.
B
B
A
speckled
Church
well,
if
we
do
find
something
more
definitive
here
on
the
land
of
the
archeology
that's
currently
been
conducted,
we
may
will
find
that
there's
some
trace
of
a
church
and
to
the
name
of
kilm
homog,
which
is
associated
with
this
field.
The
reason
I
know
it
isn't
actually
through
my
great
uncle.
It
was
through
his
housekeeper
Mary
because
she
she
came
to
this
Farm
as
a
maid,
maybe
when
she
was
13
or
14
years
of
age
instead.
Here
she
was
here
the
rest
of
her
day,
so
she's
the
one
from
home.
B
C
So,
let's
this
field
is
known
as
kilmacolomoo,
which
is
the
Church
of
my
little
Coleman,
and
there
is
a
long
sort
of
local
tradition
that
there
is
a
graveyard
in
this
site
and
if
there's
a
graveyard,
it
should
be
associated
with
a
church,
consecrated
grounds.
So
there's
a
long
tradition
here
of
basically
potentially
an
ecclesiastical
structure
or
an
early
medieval
settlement.
C
Last
year,
Alastair
ruffle
of
Queen's
University
they're
the
geophysical
survey
across
here,
and
he
picked
up
a
long
geophysical
anomaly
running
down
the
hill
and
then
turning
we
were
invited
to
come.
Do
the
excavation
to
try
and
grind
through
that
and
to
find
out
a
bit
more
about
the
site.
This
here
is
basically
an
initial
test
to
see
about
the
viability
of
the
site
and
if
there
is
definitely
stuff
here,
our
chances
have
uncovered
remains.
C
They
they're
small,
effectively
knife
cuts
under
the
ground,
and
it
would
be
great
to
come
back
here
for
a
further
season
to
maybe
open
a
large
wider
area
to
clarify
what's
going
on
and
also
when
we're
doing
that.
Part
of
this
is
to
get
the
community
involved
with
their
Heritage
and
so
far
for
this.
Basically,
the
small
week-long
excavation
we've
had
a
phenomenal
response
of
over
20
20
volunteers
a
day
basically,
and
then
all
the
other
people
have
been
coming
in
between
them
just
visiting
the
Satan
inquiring.
C
What's
going
on
and
social
media,
it's
been
great,
so
I
think
next
year
or
even
the
year
after.
If
we
had
a
further
season,
we
could
definitely
grind
truth.
So
more
of
this
find
out
exactly
what's
going
on
clarify
if
it
is
an
early
church
site
and
they're.
Basically,
the
place
names
in
the
local
tradition
is
marrying
up
with
what's
in
the
ground,
but
there
is
definitely
stuff
here
and
it
would
be
great
to
come
back
and
do
another
dig
and
bring
more
people
down.
D
And
initially,
when
we
came
out
here,
there
was
part
there
is
local
tradition
that
there
was
actually
a
graveyard
here.
So
actually
for
the
start,
we
were
looking
for
the
presence
of
an
early
medieval
Church.
We
haven't
had
any
evidence
of
that
yet,
but
we
do
have
possibly
an
early
medieval
sittering,
which
would
be
more
akin
to
that
time
period,
but
isn't
the
church
itself?
We've
had
some
lovely
finds-
and
this
is
some
nice
Syrian
wear,
which
would
obviously
be
related
to
our
Serene
and
would
be
early
medieval
in
date.
D
But
we've
also
had
some
finds
which
are
prehistoric
in
debt,
and
that
includes
napped,
flint
and
also
some
prehistoric
Pottery.
So
when
we're
looking
for
an
app
to
Flint,
we're
looking
for
any
sort
of
nicely
flakes
that
have
come
off
it
or
bulbs
of
percussion
as
well
lumps
in
the
in
the
Flint,
which
is
really
interesting,
because
it
does
show
that
there
was
people
here
from
long
before
there
was
ever
a
church,
possibly
dating
back
to
about
4000
BC.
D
E
E
So
we
opened
this
trend
to
see
if
we
can
find
anything
else
like
that
in
here,
and
we
have
found
another
couple
of
bits
of
flint
and
things
like
that,
so
other
than
that
it's
been,
it's
been
pretty
sterile
as
there's,
not
there's
not
much
there
we're
down
to
the
sub
soil.
Now
the
sub
soil
is
the
the
glacial
till
that
was
created
when
the
ice
sheets
were
retreating.
So
there's
nothing
human
underneath
that.
So
that's
where
we
stop.
G
E
F
G
Yeah,
this
is
definitely
one
of
my
bucket
list.
I've
always
wanted
to
do
an
archaeological
dig.
I've
been
fascinated
with
the
subject
since
I
was
very
young
and
just
to
do
this
is
it's
the
most
amazing
thing
when
you
find
something
you
just
want
to
keep
on
going
and
improve
on
it
and
see
what
else
is
next
onto
the
soil,
foreign.