Hut site

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on the floor of the valley of the River Blackwater, with a NNW-SSE section of the stream c. 5m to the SW. Archaeological testing (04E1060) by D. Bayley (2005) at Testing Area 9 of Contract 5 of the M3 motorway identified archaeological features in a limited area that were completely excavated (E003184) by D. Gallagher in January 2007 (excavations.ie 2007:1297) as Derver 4. It consisted of a circular hut-site (diam. 9.3m) and associated pits. The structure is defined by an arc of post-holes (diam. c. 0.28m; D 0.16m) placed c. 0.3m apart NW-E-SSE but post-holes are absent on the W side, probably because of flooding from the river. There are some internal post-holes but no hearth or entrance is identified. A group of post-holes (dims c. 2.6m x c. 2.4m) just to the E is interpreted as an annexe, but a slot-trench is not associated with either structure. A flint flake was the only artefact recovered but radiocarbon dates derived from hazel charcoal from four of the post-holes varied from 732-372 cal. BC to 392-203 cal. BC, providing a firm date in the Early Iron Age. Other features were some irregularly-shaped pits (dims 0.9m x 0.45m; D 0.18-0.2m to 3.1m x 1.1m; D 0.28m) c. 4m NW of the hut-site and isolated deposits and pits within 10m of it, one of which returned a C14 date of 795-421 cal. BC but another provided a date of 877-1024 cal. AD. There was also some burnt mound material but no trough is identified. (Gallagher and Ginn 2008)

See the attached plans from Gallagher and Ginn (2008, Figs 7, 8)
_1 Site plan;
_2 Hut-site;

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 4 March 2022

References

Bayley, D. 2005 M3 Clonee-North of Kells; Contract 5, Kells to North of Kells. Report on Archaeological Assessment at Testing Area 9 in Derver, County Meath. Licence: 04E1060. Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy

Gallagher, D. and V. Ginn 2008 M3 Clonee-North of Kells; Contract 5, Kells to North of Kells. Final Report on the Archaeological Excavation of Derver 4, Co. Meath. Licence: E003184. Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit