Carrickfergus: Remains found near the site of a medieval abbey

The bones of more than 140 people have been discovered close to where a medieval abbey stood several hundred years ago in County Antrim.

The remains - discovered at the end of last year in Carrickfergus - were located close to what was once the 14th century Woodburn Abbey.

Made up of both complete skeletons and partial remains, archaeologists say they were mainly men.

Some women and infants were also found.

Belfast-based Gahan and Long Archaeological Services were initially called in to the site as part of the planning process for a new retail store to be built in the town.

After grave cuts and bone fragments were discovered, the excavation site was extended, revealing the full scale of the remains.

A 10-week excavation of the site finished on Friday.

Teams hope that a post-excavation report - including work by an osteoarchaeologist - will yield more information.

"That will tell us the age of the individuals and their sex," Chris Long, of Gahan and Long Archaeological Services, said.

"We can identify diseases that they may have had, we will be getting radiocarbon dates for them, and we might be able to do other analysis that may tell us the individuals' ethnic origin as well."

It is still not know what era the remains belong to.

"I think they are probably 14th or 15th century, but we don't know," Mr Long said.

"The carbon dating should tell us."

The excavation was carried out on a site adjacent to the former Woodburn Abbey.

Built in 1326 by a religious order known as Premonstratensians, the abbey replaced another, original priory.

Woodburn was dissolved in 1542, when the abbot and community retired to Islandmagee, and the building was partially demolished from about 1558.

Mr Long said the discovery is significant in "providing further evidence of the medieval history of Carrickfergus".

"No one knew where the [Woodburn] abbey was exactly. So while we have not found the abbey structure itself, we've found the graveyard that would have been right beside it," he said.

"The vast majority [of remains] are buried in the Christian tradition of east-west orientation, but some later burials have been deposited north-south.

"This may reflect the burial of executed criminals from nearby Gallows Green, who would have been denied a full Christian burial."

Following further analysis, the remains will be reburied at a location which has yet to be determined.