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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Excavation - miscellaneous

Hill of Rath, County Louth, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Excavation - miscellaneous, Hill of Rath, County Louth, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Hill of Rath
County
Louth
Country
Ireland
Coordinates
53.74160, -6.40171
SMR number
LH024-058003-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1636 map "Vltoniae Orientalis Pars" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1636 · Vltoniae Orientalis Pars (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1799 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1811 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Discovered prior to construction of the M1 motorway in 2000 (Excavation Licence No. 00E0535, Area C). Excavation revealed a complex of activities including a fulacht fia, cremations, a number of ditches and a metal working site. The fulacht fia (LH024-058001-) took the form of a burnt spread of material with a trough beneath it. Six cremations (LH024-058002-) were uncovered. Three of them contained sherds of pottery including Western Neolithic, Beaker and grooved ware pottery. Seven ditches (LH024-058003-) were recorded, three were straight, two curved and two L-shaped. Two sherds of Bronze Age pottery were recovered from the latter. One of the L-shaped ditches enclosed an area which probably functioned as a metal working site (LH024-058004-). Three pits were excavated containing charcoal and slag. Evidence for a smelting spread, furnaces and possible flues was uncovered. This complex was partially excavated to facilitate road development. (Duffy 2002, 231)

Compiled by: Claire Breen

Date of upload: 26 June 2013

References

Duffy, C. 2002 Hill of Rath. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2000: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 231-3 (No. 688). Bray. Wordwell.

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Excavation - miscellaneous in Louth All County Louth records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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