Just a few feet below the ground floor of St. Michan’s in Dublin, down a set of dimly lit narrow stone steps, lie vaults underneath the church. Stacked full with coffins, there are also four exposed mummies just waiting for you to come visit them. The mummies in the basement here at St. Michan’s Church are available for viewing, but only because of a loophole in the rules of the church… and they exist only because of the vault’s perfectly — and unexpected — conditions for preservation.
St. Michan’s Church itself has an interesting history, even without the mummies beneath it. A stone’s throw from Dublin’s Four Courts, St. Michan’s is the oldest parish church on the northside of the River Liffey. In 1095, the foundation of the church — a Christian chapel—was built on the site. At that time the chapel would have lain outside the city walls of Dublin, in the marshland of what was to become known as Oxmantown or Ostmantown. The foundation of the church was built to serve the Vikings, who were still in Ireland, ostracized after the rest had been killed or kicked out by Irish forces in 1014. The church was rebuilt in 1686, and a large pipe organ was installed in 1724, on which George Frideric Handel (a German-born Baroque composer known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi and organ concertos) is said to have first played the Messiah.
The present parish church, which serves Church of Ireland parishioners and is a member of the Christ Church Cathedral Group of Parishes, can effectively be traced back to rebuilding that occurred in the late 17th century, but unbeknownst to those who built the medieval chapel, the choice to build an ecclesiastic structure on marshland would come to provide a subterranean environment that would make it famous in later centuries. While the organ is a draw for classical-music enthusiasts, St. Michan’s main attraction lies deep within its bowels. All along, as the church changed, the crypt stayed the same: slowly mummifying all that lay within it.
Within the five burial vaults below the church, there lies the mummified remains of some of Dublin’s most influential 17th, 18th, and 19th-century families such as the legendary Sheares brothers (hanged and quartered after joining the United Irish movement), the Hamilton Family, and the Earls of Leitrim.
In the underground crypt shown here to the left, there are four mummies visible for viewing known as The Big Four. Many myths and stories have evolved around the identities of these mummies, however that doesn’t stand in the way of what historians and archaeologists have learned and applied from past identification processes. If you look at the photo below, you’ll see three of the Big Four!
The mummy in the center of the crypt is the most interesting to observe (at least in my opinion). He is referred to as the Crusader, and is the most famous corpse here at St. Michan’s; he is also the oldest, at approximately 800 years old! Legend has it that he was once a courageous knight who fought during the Fourth Crusade. It is believed that he was either a soldier who died in the crusades, or who returned home and died shortly after battle.
The Crusader was quite tall for the time at six and a half feet (or 198cm) and would have been considered a giant! So tall in fact, that his legs had to be broken and folded up under him so he would fit into his coffin. His hand stretches out of the casket slightly and — years ago — visitors were permitted to touch him. Today, you are no longer permitted to touch the mummies, but you’ll get close enough to them still.
To the right of The Crusader is the mummy known as “the thief”, thought to be about 400 years old. He is missing parts of his feet and a hand, but historians are unsure exactly as to why. The hand may have been cut off as punishment, and some believe the “thief” later converted and became a priest or other form of respected man, which is why he is buried in the church. It would be rather strange for a thief or criminal to be buried here at the church, there it is also thought that he possibly was never a thief at all and lost the hand in some other way. We may never know for sure!
There are also a number of theories as to why the corpses in the basement have been preserved and mummified over time. One is that the grounds in the crypts contain limestone, making it particularly dry and therefore good for mummification. Another is that the church was built on former swamp land, and methane gas emissions have acted as a kind of preservative of the bodies. Other theories involve the presence of oak wood in the soil, or the building materials used in the church, but it is most likely that the dry conditions due to limestone plus the methane gas have had the biggest impacts on the mummification process.
Regardless of the reason, whatever has preserved the corpses and morphed them into mummies is also disintegrating their coffins. On some of the coffins, the wood has fallen away and these well-preserved mummies have come, well, tumbling out. This is where the loophole comes in which permits visitors to view the bodies beneath the church. While it would be inappropriate for the church to break open caskets looking for mummies, this natural self-exposure has given reason for visitation and viewings.
As mentioned earlier, the crypts also serve as a resting place for many other well-known Irish figures, including mathmetician William Rowan Hamilton, the Earls of Kenmare, and the remains of Robert Emmet, the Irish rebel killed by the British in 1803 (although this is alleged— other churches have claimed to have his remains as well!). Also laid to rest here inside the crypts of St. Michan’s are the Sheares brothers, who were executed by the British for their involvement in the Rising of 1798. Not just simply executed though, but hanged, drawn and quartered. They received the statutory penalty for men convicted of high treason in the kingdom of England, in which the convicted traitor was fastened to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where he was then hanged (almost to the point of death), emasculated, disemboweled, beheaded and quartered… yes, chopped into four pieces.
While the mummies — and the others lain to rest in the crypts — have had many visitors over the decades, one of the most famous visitors said to have toured the crypt was none other than Bram Stoker, author of Dracula. Surely his interest in dark tourism — and possibly his visit to see St. Michan’s mummies — inspired a certain morbid streak within him that would later serve quite well for the author.
While visiting the crypts, it is important to remember that those who are resting below St. Michan’s are more than nameless mummies and human remains lying in dusty, old coffins. These were once men and women animated by their own desires and dreams, with some of their ambitions being nothing short of revolutionary. This point is made plain by a plaque that lies outside the crypts, which depicts a harp — the symbol of the United Irishmen — and the words, “Equality — it is new strung and shall be heard”.
How to Plan a Visit: While touching the mummies is no longer permitted, you can still visit them during a crypt tour of St. Michan’s. The tours are led each day by Peter — a very knowledgeable, animated man who perfectly suits as cryptkeeper and tour guide —and run during the following hours:
Monday through Friday, 10:00am-12:45pm, 2:00pm-4:45pm and Saturday, 10:00am-12:45pm.
For some insight into the crypt tour at St. Michan’s, check out my IGTV video here.
