Field system

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a broad, fairly level area. A remote sensing survey (12R0080 ext.) conducted during 2014 in the Racecourse Field of the Dowth estate recorded elements of a field system that cover almost the entire area of about 20ha (c. 50 acres). These single ditch features create five E-W field divisions, spaced 66-90m apart, and sub-divided by N-S oriented linear elements to create long, rectangular, and very regular fields (dims c. 100-150m x c. 50-100m). There are a number of possible stock-holding enclosures in the corners of some of the fields. One of them (ME020-081001-) at the S edge of the area was tested and Neolithic pottery was recovered from a post-hole in the fill of its ditch (Ni Lionáin 2019, 7-9). A possible ‘plectrum-shaped enclosure’ and associated features were identified in the northeast corner of the area. In the southeast there is a single, curvilinear boundary with a higher magnetic reading than in other areas, which is perhaps a later addition. (Ní Lionáin and Davis 2016, 149)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload; 9 December, 2016
Amended: 1 November 2022

References

Ní Lionáin, C. and S. Davis 2016 Conservation Plan for the Cultural Heritage of the Devenish Lands at Dowth. Unpublished report; National Monuments Service, Dublin

Ní Lionáin, C. 2019 Preliminary report on the Monitoring of Tree Planting Programme in the Old Racecourse Field, the Devenish Lands at Dowth, Co. Meath. Licence: 18E0047. Unpublished report, Devenish