Henge

The National Monuments Service's description

This monument is described by Stout (1991, 271-4) as:
This monument is depicted as a large circular wood on the 1836 and 1908 editions of the OS 6-inch map and is located at the SW end of a broad NE-SW ridge that is c. 3km north of the River Boyne. The underlying bedrock is Early Palaeozoic shale, covered by glacial deposits on which a brown earth soil has formed. A probable passage tomb (ME025-006----) is located on the S side of the river at Broadboyne Bridge, 3.2km to the SSE. A continuous flat-topped earthen bank (Wth of base 17m; Wth of top 5m at S; int. H 2.2-2.8m; ext. H 1.7-1.9m) encloses a roughly circular saucer-shaped interior (int. diam. c. 75m N-S). The source for the bank material is a shallow scarped area best seen (Wth c. 12m; int. D c. 0.2m) inside the bank at N. A narrow ridge of earth (Wth c. 2m; int. H 0.2m), added to the outer lip of the bank top at N, probably dates from the conversion of the enclosure into a tree ring when the outer slope of the bank here (Wth 0.5m; ext. H 1.75m) was steepened. A 6m-wide lowering of the bank at WSW does not penetrate to the base of the enclosing earthwork and is unlikely to be original, and an original entrance is not identified. (Sweetman 1976, 69; Ó Riordáin 1979, 158; Thornton 1980, 120-2; Stout 1991, 271-3)

Date of revision: 10 January 2017
Amended: 24 March 2023

References

Ó Ríordáin, S.P. 1979 (5th ed.) Antiquities of the Irish countryside. London and New York. Routledge.

Sweetman, P.D. 1976 An earthen enclosure at Monknewtown, Slane, Co. Meath. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 76C, 25-73.

Thornton, G. 1980 A survey of the earthen enclosures of the Boyne Valley and related sites. MA thesis, University College, Dublin.

Stout, G. 1991 The embanked enclosures of the Boyne region. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 91C, 245-84.

Moore, M. 1987 Archaeological inventory of county Meath. Dublin. Stationery Office.