Skeletal remains discovered in Shop Street ‘big dig’

Galway City Tribune – Fragments of a skull, pelvis, vertebrae and leg have been unearthed on Shop Street during the current excavation works.

The bone fragments could have belonged to corpses buried in the graveyard of St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, which was thought to have stretched further than the current boundary of the 13th century cemetery.

Galway City Council Heritage Officer Dr Jim Higgins said it appeared as if most of the skeletal remains had been disturbed before and laid together in one pile. However, there was one group of bones which may be in their original burial place in brown earth.

The discovery last week has been reported to the Gardaí, the Coroner, the National Monuments Service and the National Museum, but will not delay the work on the ‘big dig’.

The bones were located 55cm from the door of Café Express have been photographed and exact coordinates recorded before archaeologists with the Moore Group covered them over with sand and weak concrete to protect them from vehicular traffic.
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