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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ring-ditch

Calliaghstown (Kells Upper By.), County Meath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ring-ditch, Calliaghstown, County Meath, 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
Calliaghstown (Kells Upper By.)
County
Meath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.71637, -6.90507
SMR number
ME016-081002-

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)
  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Get directions ↗

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

The National Monuments Service's description

Located at the edge of a ridge in a low-lying area with a canalised SSW-NNE stream c. 25m to the W and lower ground to the S. Archaeological centre-line testing (04E1052) by G. McLoughlin (2005) at Testing Area 1 of Contract 5 of the M3 motorway (excavations.ie 2004:1194) identified archaeological features that were partially investigated (E003164) within the road-take by S. Reilly in interrupted sessions between September 2006 and April 2009 as Calliaghstown 1 (Reilly et al. 2008) when a large enclosure was recorded at the W end while a ring-ditch and a rectangular enclosure were revealed at the E end of the excavation.

In Area A, E of a SSW-NNE field bank and stream, a circular area (int. diam. c. 16m) was at the N edge of the road-take and half of it survives outside it. The enclosure is defined by a flat-bottomed fosse (Wth 2.4m; D 0.9m), and there may have been an entrance at S. The ditch was re-cut as shallower and wider (max. Wth 2.86m; max. D 0.74m) in Phase 2, and recut again at the W edge in Phase 3. The interior of the enclosure is marked by NE-SW furrows, and no original internal features survive. It is later than the rectangular enclosure that is just to the S and cuts its fosse. (Reilly et al. 2008, 2-3)

See the attached plans from Reilly et al. (2008, figs 7, 8, 9)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 4 March 2022

References

Reilly, S., Kinsella, J. and V. Ginn 2008 M3 Clonee – North of Kells, Contract 5, Kells to North of Kells. Final Report on the Archaeological Excavation of Calliaghstown 1, Co. Meath. Licence: E003164. Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services

McLoughlin, G. 2005 M3 Clonee-North of Kells; Contract 5, Kells to North of Kells. Report on Archaeological Assessment at Testing Area 1 in Calliaghstown, County Meath. Licence: 04E1052. Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy

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
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