Navan & District Historical Society

Canon Row
It was built sometime in the 1520s, just outside the Town Walls.  (see link Town Wall). Its name has nothing to do with big guns, despite it once being called called “Sráid na Gunnaí Móra”. It gets its name from the Canons (or monks) from the old Abbey (which was built near to Abbey Road) making their way into the town.

canon row
(above) Aerial view of Canon Row c.1955-60

Below is the list of tenants in Canon Row from the Lord de Ros Estate Rental Books 1880.

These are courtesy of Navan Library, which purchased the Rental Book at the auction of the William Battersby estate.


17           John Meighan                     26            Michael Bird              33   James King
18 – 20   Patrick Commons                 27            Thomas Clinton
21           Thomas Roe                       28            James Dalton
22            Ann Tallon                         29            Thomas Lallaway
23            Michael Murphy                 30            John McNally
24            Michael Roe                      31            Thomas Murphy
25            Willam Pickett                   32 + 32A  James Carpenter

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Navan Leases 1824

Report (regarding Cannon Row) of Crown Lands and Quit Rents in Ireland 1824 from The Times (The London Times ) reported on 27 August 1824 and 16 November 1824:

In an account of the lands held under the crown for determinable leases, with the rental of the same, there is the following curious denomination of lands in the town of Navan:

“held by 14 tenants, and all the day’s works and labours in autumn of said 14 tenants; and also another in Navan, formerly in tenure of John Philpot, and all customary duties of mowing corn in autumn of said 14 tenants, and for any other day’s work in making hay etc: and one hen from every one of said tenants at  Christmas etc., and one customary gallon, commonly called a “Mary Gallon “ of the best beer of every brewing, made to be sold in the town of Navan aforesaid; all parcel of the revenues of the dissolved monastery of Navan, and all those cottages lately built without the walls of said town, in a certain street called the Canon Row; and also a fishing weir.”

canon row milestone (above) The Canon Row Milestone, marking the distance to Dunshaughlin as 9 1/2 miles. (photo N&DHS)

It is numbered 24, the last numbered milestone on the old Turnpike Road between Navan and Dublin.

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Recent Excavations in Canon Row are recorded below

http://www.excavations.ie/report/2004/Meath/0012419/
County: Meath   Site name: CANON ROW, NAVAN
Excavations.ie number: 2004:1297        License number: 03E1314
Author: Alan Hayden, Archaeological Projects Ltd, 27 Coulson Avenue, Rathgar, Dublin 6.
Site type: Suburban medieval
ITM: E 686639m, N 767830m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.653060, -6.689391

Excavation of part of the site revealed evidence of the back gardens of medieval plots fronting onto Canon Row, a medieval street which lay outside the town walls. The features consisted largely of pits and gullies containing medieval pottery. The remains of a substantial field ditch, also containing medieval pottery, and medieval cultivation furrows were revealed at the Kennedy Road end of the site.

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http://www.excavations.ie/report/2003/Meath/0010463/
County: Meath   Site name: Canon Row, Navan


Excavations.ie number: 2003:1426        License number: 03E1314
Author: Alan Hayden, Archaeological Projects Ltd, 27 Coulson Avenue, Rathgar, Dublin 6.
Site type: Medieval suburban
ITM: E 686639m, N 767830m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.653060, -6.689391

Five trenches were mechanically excavated on 3 September 2003. Silt-filled pits, gullies and ditches survived at the south end of the site beneath a layer of medieval cultivated soil. Many contained medieval pottery. Cultivation furrows and gullies containing medieval pottery survived also at the north end beneath a layer of medieval cultivated soil. No features survived at the centre of the site, where a natural gravel ridge rose to modern ground level. As the proposed development included a basement over the whole site, excavation of the surviving features was recommended.

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http://www.excavations.ie/report/1998/Meath/0003695/
County: Meath   Site name: 40-42 CANON ROW, NAVAN
Excavations.ie number: 1998:517         License number: 98E0121
Author: James Eogan, Archaeological Development Services Ltd, Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3.
Site type: Urban
ITM: E 685833m, N 767919m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.653992, -6.701567

As a condition of planning permission three test-trenches were excavated with a tracked mechanical excavator with a 3ft-wide bucket on this site, which is within the zone of archaeological potential of Navan town. The Civil Survey (1654-6) records houses outside West Gate on the north side of Canon Row.

Trench 1 was excavated on the Canon Row frontage. Nothing of archaeological interest was found.

Trench 2 ran south-west/north-east across the yard to the rear of 42 Canon Row. A series of gullies was found cut into underlying natural, with associated 18th- and 19th-century pottery. The upper levels of the trench related to the modern use of the site as a farmyard.

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