Time Team Day 5 - Downpatrick

Good morning!  Thirty-One Days of the Time Team continues to press on with another episode from season five.  After doing this episode I will have four more episodes of season five to find.  I have been finding these episodes on the Chronicle YouTube Channel, so I have to do a little digging to figure out what season this episode came from.  This episode is called Downpatrick and has a run time of 50:44.

This time the Time Team is investigating Ireland’s most sacred sites.  It was said that St. Patrick had set up his first church.  The site sits on magnificent Cathedral Hill.  The church that stands on the hill has been renovated but the Time Team is looking for earlier buildings that were on the site.  This was the site where St. Patrick built a monastery and was buried.  Are there any traces of St. Patrick at this site?  What will the Time Team find on this site?  What will the Time Team learn about this site? 

Mick and Tony both arrive at the site and start taking a walk around the current church.  Mick points out some of the features of the site, which was rebuilt in the 18th Century.  There are oddly shaped mounds that the church had built around.  Did these mounds have something do to with St. Patrick?  Is this why the builders were avoiding these mounds?

Mick and Tony meet with Peter Harbison a historian who has a plan featuring the church.  The plan shows that there were round towers on the site.  These would have been some sort of bell towers, but they did not have anything to do with St. Patrick.  The pair make their way to Victor Ambrus who is drawing out what the bell tower looked like.  Victor’s interpretation shows the site as it would have looked.   Time Team is going to look for a bell tower and they begin to take the asphalt off the site.

Trench one goes in, and Phil immediately starts making finds on this trench.  This was a good section because Phil carefully demonstrated the different sounds that he encountered in this trench.  The different sounds indicated the different soils and materials that were found in the ground.  The Time Team goes into the archives to look at the images that were collected over the years featuring the church and the bell tower.  There was a debate as to the true location of the bell tower.  Hopefully, Phil is looking at the right spot!

Time Team then turns its attention to a nearby open field.  This field used to have tennis courts.  John Gater discusses the geophysics results with the Time Team.  There seem to be hints of the building's remains.  Did these buildings belong to St. Patrick?  Mick seems to suggest that they may have belonged to the Benedictine Abbey on the site.  Tony is confused about the geophysics results.  It is decided that a second trench will go in.  Eventually Tony brings out images of the site.  Stewart and Carenza are looking for evidence of a boundary ditch.  Stewart seems to have discovered a bank and a ditch.

Peter, Tony, and Robin Bush examine a high cross on the site.  Peter talks about the cross and the history of the cross.  Tony then turns to Robin to talk more about the cross and the site.  Robin talks about St. Patrick and who he was as a man.  Several local musicians are joining the episode to share the different music of the different eras in Ireland.
We return to Phil and Trench One.  Phil continues to make some very interesting finds in this trench, however, is not finding the bell tower.  Time Team is not having luck in Trench Two either and it will eventually be shut down.  Trench Three is going in at Stewart’s insistence.  Will the Time Team’s luck turn?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

This was a funny episode with the Time Team.  You would have thought they had something at the start because the site was well-documented in the archives.  It took time for the Time Team to make finds but when they made them they were significant.  I would put this on my list of potential documentaries to show to a history class.