Discovering Medieval Ferns, Co. Wexford

This article is from Current Archaeology issue 407

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REVIEW BY MARIE THERESE FLANAGAN

Discovering Medieval Ferns, Co. Wexford, focuses on the town as a regional religious and royal centre in the Kingdom of Leinster during the medieval period.

It provides reports on surveys and excavations at three sites. The first site examined is the 12th-century Augustinian St Mary’s Abbey, of which only the partially preserved church survives, although survey techniques have identified elements of claustral buildings. The second site is the remains of St Edan’s 13th-century cathedral in Ferns, which overlaid an early medieval monastic site reputedly founded around the turn of the 7th century by St Aidan, hypocoristically also known as St Máedóc. While several elements of the original monastery have been identified by geophysical survey and excavations – notably sections of the enclosures, the diameters of which suggest that it was a large and significant centre – the only surface remnants of the early medieval complex are several high crosses, cross slabs, and cross fragments, none in their original locations. The last site, also associated with St Aidan, is that of the single phase mid-12th-century church of Clone, 2.25km from Ferns, which has distinctive Romanesque carvings and a fine sundial, with earlier medieval antecedents represented by cross-slabs and three enclosures identified by survey and excavation.

Other medieval remains at Ferns, notably the impressive Anglo-Norman castle, are not treated here, apart from discussion of a candle holder (or rushlight holder) found there and contextualised by a catalogue of similar finds in south-east Leinster. An innovative element of the investigations was a cross-border arts and heritage input exploring ancient links between communities in Pembrokeshire and Wexford using the shared heritage of St David and his reputed pupil and protégé, St Aidan; it was part of a wider programme trying to find archaeological remains that linked the medieval history of both regions.

The volume is handsomely illustrated with copious images, plans, and tables, and it convincingly demonstrates that the importance of medieval Ferns was disproportionate to its relatively modest size today, and that there remains strong potential for further specialist analyses at Ferns.

Stephen Mandal, Michael Potterton, and Denis Shine (eds)
Four Courts Press, £25
ISBN 978-1801510219