Field system

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a shelf on a NE and E-facing slope. Archaeological centre-line testing (04E1054) by D. Bayley (2005) at Testing Area 3 of Contract 5 of the M3 motorway (excavations.ie 2004:1223) identified archaeological material that was fully resolved (E003169) by D. Gallagher between November 2006 and March 2007 as Chapelbride 4 (excavations.ie 2006:1528). Few stratigraphic relationships could be established, but elements of a field system, a hut-site and another structure as well as a ring-ditch testify to prehistoric activity and two corn-drying kilns extend into the first millennium AD.
Several discontinuous field drains were part of a field system. The principal feature was a WNW-ESE drain (Wth of top 0.82-1.3m; D 0.17-0.5m) that meandered across the excavated area in several sections (total L 100m plus), curving sometimes to the N and sometimes to the S. At least two N-S ditches approach this feature from the N. A NW-SE section of the long boundary cuts the SW side of the ring-ditch (ME016-076001-), and a feeder drain from the N also cuts the ring-ditch to enter the main drain. The fields could have been c. 50m wide (E-W), and two corn-drying kilns were probably associated with them. (O’Hara et al. 2009, 4-5)

See the attached plan from O'Hara et al. (2009, fig. 7)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 4 March 2022

O’Hara, R., Gallagher, D. and V. Ginn 2009 M3 Clonee – North of Kells, Contract 5 Final Report on the Archaeological Excavation of Chapelbride 4, Co. Meath. Licence: E003169. Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services

References

Bayley, D. 2005 M3 Navan – North of Kills, Contract 5, Kells to North of Kells. Report on Archaeological Assessment at Testing Area 3 in Chapelbride, County Meath. Licence: 04E1054. Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy