Tag Archives: Quin Friary

A BIRD’S eye view on the past is what a dedicated group of Quin residents are hoping to share, after a year spent delving into the fascinating heritage and history of the area.  With the restrictions of lockdown putting a new focus on everything local, many communities have had the opportunity to find out more about their immediate environs. A thriving village with many non-native residents, Quin also boasts an abundance of features of historical interest. These stretch back into the Bronze Age and the Knocknafearbreaga Alignment of standing stones close to Clooney. They also include Magh Adhair, the inauguration site of the Dalcassian O’Briens and, of course, the magnificent Franciscan friary, dating to the 1400s.  As lockdown began to ease last year, Quin Heritage Group was born. Almost 12 months later, a committee of four have gathered a wealth of images, videos, articles and surveys which they have made available through a state-of-the-art website. Yvonne Gallagher, Siobhán O’Sullivan, Michael …

TWO artefacts were uncovered following a week-long archaeological dig at Quin Friary but the significance of what was unearthed and the structures beneath the surface will not be known for a number of months. A musket ball and a pipe bowl were unearthed at two separate trenches at the Friary, which is locally known as Quin Abbey. Although there is no date for the musket ball, an early 17th century date has been assigned to the pipe bowl. The dig musket ball was uncovered in the soil from a trench which revealed remnants of the old castle ditch. One of the two archaeologists over the dig, Joe McCooey said, “We have other things to work on. We have to process everything. We have to do a lot of post-excavation work, so we will step back and see. We should have some further information for the public in three or four months time”. He said it is hoped to hold an …

AN American apprentice archaeologist, who flew in from Ohio to participate in the archaeological dig at Quin Friary earlier this week, has uncovered the first artefact, a clay pipe that dates back to 1628. Jenny Sacher from Cleveland, Ohio, has worked with archaeologists Joe McCooey and Graham Hull previously at Caherconnell and when she heard that they would be conducting a dig at the well-known historical site in Quin, she offered to volunteer. Mr McCooey said the find was made in trench one, where they believe there are remnants of a road and house. “It is a very small old-fashioned clay pipe. The size of the bowl suggests the date. Clay pipes are very well documented and we can narrow them down through the years in a sequence. We have drawings of other clay pipes that we take our references from and we found that pipe in the sequence and that’s how we got the 1628 date. We only have …