Ring-ditch

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 E. Danaher 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.
Just 7m N of the hut-site Structure A is a ring-ditch consisting of a circular area (int. diam. 4m NW-SE; ext. diam. 5m NW-SE) defined by a fosse (Wth 0.96m; D 0.5m) with a narrow entrance at SE where the fosse narrows. The fosse was filled with three deposits silty clays with charcoal. A sample from the lowest deposit produced a C14 date of 396-204 cal. BC (Beta 247141) placing it in the Early Iron Age but a charred barley grain from the middle deposit yielded a date of 430-617 cal. AD (Beta 247142) showing it was still extant in the Early Medieval period, although the SW side of the ring-ditch was truncated by a NW-SE medieval field drain. (O’Hara et al. 2009, 4-5)

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 Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services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 Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy