Is this a mass Siege Grave?

The remains were unearthed during exploration of the foundations of the church as part of the ongoing restoration work on the historic building, which began last year and is scheduled to complete later this year.

An archaeologist from the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork (CAF) at Queen's University Belfast, Cormac McSparron, who worked at the site on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, has revealed that while the buried bodies could indicate the land was used as a graveyard, equally, the possibility exists that the skeletons could also date to the time of the 105-day Siege, meaning the bodies could be those of people who either starved to death inside the city walls or were fatally injured in one of the bloody skirmishes that took place.

Furthermore, artefacts found in the soil around the human remains and beneath the wall, such as clay pipe bowls and pottery from Britain, Ireland and Continental Europe, date to the 1600s, and some to the late 1600s.

Commenting on the finds, Mr McSparron said: "It is probably a mass grave, but it is hard to say for sure. Certainly the finds suggest from the relatively small area that we opened at that end of the church, that there were quite a number of burials. We have one articulated skeleton, a skull in another church and at the side of that church we have more bones emerging, so we have at least three sets of human remains within two relatively small churches that pre-date the existing church.

"It is reasonable to extrapolate that there are likely to be a lot of burials in the area. The material found around them are compatible with the Siege period, but that's not to say they couldn't just be ordinary burials from the two previous churches in that area," he said.

There has been Presbyterian worship at or close to the site of the First Presbyterian Church since 1675 when a Presbyterian Meeting House was built. The earliest incarnation of the First Derry Presbyterian Church was constructed on Magazine Street Upper in 1690, with the assistance of a grant from Queen Mary in recognition of the bravery of the townsfolk displayed during the siege. The church was rebuilt in 1780 and repaired in 1828 and is a Grade B+ listed building.

Excited by the find, First Derry Minister, Rev Dr David Latimer, said he hoped that at some point after restoration work was completed a plaque could be erected commemorating the dead who rest beneath the church and the adjoining car park.

The minister also revealed that the graves would not be disturbed by any future building works.

It is planned that the archaeological dig will be included in the 'story' of First Derry Presbyterian Church in the new interpretive centre, which is being created at the rear of the church building at a cost of 150,000, which includes money gifted to the project by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.