PICS: Uprooted tree unearths 1000-year-old murdered teenager in Sligo

Recent storms have revealed a gruesome surprise in Sligo - the body of a teenager thought to have met a violent death 1000 years ago.

When a 215-year-old beech tree was ripped up during high winds in Collooney recently, the top half of a young man’s skeleton was found tangled in its roots. The lower half remained in the ground.

Sligo-Leitrim Archaeological Services (SLAS), an independent archaeological consultancy established in 2015, was commissioned to undertake a rescue excavation on the site by the National Monuments Service.

SLAS retrieved the remains and began analysing the burial and body.

"The burial was that of a young man and preliminary analysis indicates he suffered a violent death during the early medieval period," archaeologist Dr Marion Dowd wrote on the SLAS Facebook page.

Tests by osteoarchaeologist Dr Linda Lynch found the remains are those of a young man, aged between 17 and 20. Radiocarbon dating suggests he died between 1030 and 1200.

He was over 5ft 10in in height, making him taller than the average medieval person. Mild spinal joint disease suggests he was involved in physical labour from a young age.

The young man is thought to have died in violent circumstances. Several injuries are visible on the ribs and hand. These are believed to have been caused by knife wounds, and the hand injuries appear to have been defensive.

“This burial gives us an insight into the life and tragic death of a young man in medieval Sligo. He was almost certainly from a local Gaelic family, but whether he died in battle or was killed during a personal dispute, we will never know for sure” says Dowd.

The body of the young man had received a formal Christian burial. The burial pre-dates the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169, so his death is likely to have been the result of a local conflict or personal dispute.

No other skeletons were discovered during the excavation, although 19th century records reveals the presence of a church and graveyard in the locality. No above-ground evidence of these remain.

Post-excavation work is ongoing at the site and further analysis of the remains is currently underway.