Folklore suggests at least one mass grave exists below the city

However, we were contacted on Friday by Fountain man William Temple, who has moved the story on for us.

Mr Temple said that the remains and burials are Siege-related, and also form part of the 'folklore' associated with one of the Parent Clubs of the Apprentice Boys.

Mr Temple said a mass grave does indeed exist: "A mass grave exists in Society Street and the Free School area and extends out to St Columb's Cathedral, and there may be evidence for that because when they were excavating Bishop Street for the new buildings that were built, the Nicholson family led a party to collect as many bones as they could and these bones were re-interred at the east window of St Columb's Cathedral."

Excavated

He went on to say that when Dean Smiley was building the Chancel at the Cathedral in the 1890s the site containing the bones was excavated, and the bones and spoil around them were placed into three carts. He said the intention at the time was that the contents of the carts were to be taken down to the Water Bastion where works were ongoing to stry and straighten the bend in the river, but there was an outcry from the people of the Fountain.

"The soil and the bones from the Cathedral were taken to 'the strands' along the Foyle River and were taken down to the bays, and they were going to use them to fill in the river.

"The people of the Fountain stopped the carts and made them go back to the graveyard. and they took them to what is now the 'Heroes Mound'. That mound is managed by the Apprentice Boys Association and if you look at the obelisk on it you will see two Coats of Arms. One is the City Coat of Arms and the other is the Nicholson Family Coat of Arms, and the family's Coat of Arms was put on the obelisk in recognition of their efforts to re-inter the bones."

his story does not end there: "The Nicholson family is also supposed to have donated a corps of drums to the Churchill Band and they on the drums, so the Coat of Arms they have on the drums is believed to be the Nicholson Coat of Arms."

You can make up your own minds about that by closer examination of the two pictures to the right.

Legend

The guides at St Columb's Cathedral have their own slant on the skeletons' legend, and one of them told me that when restorations were being conducted in 1860-62, builders digging out the channels for the new heating duct on the North Aisle found a lot of bones and bodies, and his understanding is that there was a furore because the remains were, apparently, "dumped out in the graveyard rather unceremoniously".

According to the Cathedral guide the local people objected, and it is believed that the larger bones were placed in four coffins, and those were interred in the North Aisle, around where the Baker/Browning monument is. The remaining soil, presumably containing all the smaller remains, were used to create the Siege Heroes Mound in the grounds of the Cathedral adjacent to the processional gate. So it appears small fragments of bone exist within the mound.

Another of the guides said it was his understanding that any bones in the Siege Mound were removed and reburied before the new pews were set down in the North Aisle.

Of of thing they are certain, they unshakeably believe the bones in the North Aisle were those of Captain Browning and Col Baker, and another snippet they insist is accurate is that the main burial area during the Siege, or at the very least one of them, ran between St Augustine's and the Cathedral, so there is certainly some credence to Mr Temple's assertion that a mass grade existed.

Quiet

One of them tells me: "I think if you dig down deep enough anywhere in the city you'll come across bones, you definitely will, there's no doubt about that, and maybe more so in the Magazine Street area because that would have been the quiet end of the city. There would have been less fighting down there and it would make sense. There's hangman's corner there in Magazine Street, and anyone they had to hang during the Siege was hung at Hangman's Bastion, and they threatened to hang some of the French officers at the double bastion.

Honour"

The bastions were originally named in 1622 to honor the Protestant English settlers like 'Lord Dowcra's Bulwark' or the 'Governor of the Plantation Bulwark'. During the siege of Londonderry is 1689 the bastions came to be renamed with a more topical tone, 'Coward's Bastion' or 'Hangman's Bastion' is just one example. hangman's bastion is on the stretch of the Walls after you turn up from the gate at the bottom of Magazine Street and before you get to Magazine Gate.

That said, a member of the Orange Order told me that Hangman's Bastion apparently got it's name when a man accidentally got entangled in ropes and fell over the Walls. He confirmed that it is also known as Cowards Bastion, perhaps because it was the safest part of the Walls, and said it was situated between Butchers Gate and Shipquay Gate along Magazine Street. However, they have been all destroyed or removed.

In an old edition of a guide book about the Cathedral it reads: "During the Siege of 1689, more than 7,000 burials took place in the City, most of them in the graveyards of the Cathedral and of St Augustine's Church."

However, I'm curious as to what the Cathedral guides think of the idea of a mass grave in the city outside the Cathedral grounds and open the topic with them, particularly the possibility that a Siege mass burial ground existed on land running from Society Street in the direction of the Cathedral.

"It's entirely feesible. They had to be buried somewhere," is their general take.

Harvey Nicholson

Meanwhile, with regard to what Nicholson family was involved in the saving of bones beneatah what is now Bishop Street, Cathedral Guide Ian Bartlett accompanies me to the gallery overhanging the West wall of the Cathedral, where set into the wall is a plaque dedicated to Harvey Nicholson Esq, which shows the same crest as that which appears on the obelisk erected on top of the Siege Heroes Mound, which indicates it was not the 'Ardmore' Nicholsons but rather the Magistrate Harvey Nicholson, who may have acted to save the Siege remains when foundations for buildings on Bishop Street were started.

Anyone with Siege folklore who wants to share their knowledge or Siege stories is welcome to contact the Sentinel at 028 7134 1175 or can email olga.lbradshaw@jpress.co.uk.