Road - road/trackway

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a slight E-facing slope in a gently undulating landscape. An area of intense agricultural processing was first identified in 2004 in centre-line testing (04E0923) on the M3 motorway, and set aside for resolution as Phoenixtown 2 (Keith 2007). A geophysical survey (02R058) highlighted the complexity of the material (Bartlett 2002), and subsequently a large area (dims c. 100m NW-SE; c. 45m NE-SW) within the way-leave was excavated (E003129) in 2006 and 2007 (Lyne 2010, 2010a).
The principal feature revealed was an E-W roadway, together with five corn-drying kilns, a threshing floor, a well and water-hole, and the corner of a house in the immediate vicinity of the road. On ceramic evidence all the features date from the late twelfth to the fourteenth century, but the area was cut by numerous large pits (diam. c. 2-3m; D 0.3-0.9m to dims c. 6-9m x c. 2-3m; D 1m) and many smaller ones which contained a mix of largely local medieval wares, dating generally to the same period. There was very little intrusive material, although prehistoric lithics do occur (ibid. 27-34, 39-48). There were also numerous furrows, generally aligned N-S or E-W that cut through most other features over the area and represent the last activity on the site (ibid. 48-55) but the ceramics recovered date generally to the thirteenth and fourteenth century. The earliest features are some disjointed sections of field boundaries with associated plough furrows (ibid. 5). (Lyne 2008)
The name Phoenixtown is derived from the Irish Baile na bhfionnóg – town of the (grey?) crow - which was anglicised as Finnogestown (Murphy 2010, ccxii). The barony of Lower Navan was granted by Hugh de Lacy to Jocelin de Angulo at the start of the Anglo-Norman settlement of Meath in 1172, but there is no record of the initial sub-infeudation. In 1318 the manor of Martry, which was probably as large as the medieval parish, had reverted to the King because its holder, Walter de Say, was guilty of a felony, probably committed during the Bruce campaign (1314-18). Martry was granted to Hugh de Turpelton, but in 1324 possession had passed to Miles de Verdon. An inquisition into the value of Marty at this time mentions Fenokston for the first time, and amongst the free tenants David Beg, Adam Beg, and Richard Lewati hold a carucate of land (c. 300 acres) at Fenokston, and these families were probably the owners of the agricultural enterprise in the excavated area. The ownership of the manor of Martry is uncertain for the rest of the century but by 1415 it had passed to the Darcy family. However, the Beg name recurs in documents through the fourteenth century (ibid. ccix).

The road consists of an E-W metalled surface (Wth up to 4.5m) which is in good condition with wheel-ruts and hollow tracks from draught animals (L 55m plus), and it extends outside the way-leave on both sides (Lyne 2010, 6-10. It is accompanied by drainage ditches on the S (L 53m; Wth of top 2.4m; D 0.53m) and N (L 48m; Wth of top 2.3m; D 0.52m), which are connected by gullies in two places. The ditches were filled and the road sealed by a sandy clay which produced largely local wares of the twelfth to fourteenth centuries (Lyne 2008, 2010, 6-9). Gosling postulates (2016, 76) that this section of road could have been part of the road between the medieval towns of Athboy and Ardee that can be identified in Teltown and Orristown (ME017-062----) further N.

See the attached plan from Lyne (2010, Fig. 9)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 11 July, 2019

References

Bartlett, A.D. H. 2002 Report on Archaeologeophysical Survey2002, Section 3: Navan to Kells and Kells Bypass. Licence No. 02R058) Unpublished report, Bartlett-Clarke Consultancy

Murphy, M. 2010 Appendix 5 Phoenixtown – late medieval historical references. in Lyne 2010, ccvii-ccxi

Lyne, Ed. 2008 Lives through time. Archaeology Ireland, 22, 2, 17-21.

Lyne, Ed. 2010 M3 Clonee – North of Kells Motorway Scheme. Archaeological Services Contract 4. Navan to Kells and Kells Bypass. Licence No. A029, E003129. Final Report. Unpublished, IAC

Lyne, Ed. 2010a Phoenixtown 2. Medieval cobbled road and associated medieval settlement. in I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 2007: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 374-5, No. 1368. Dublin, Wordwell

Keith, S. 2007 Testing Area 4, Phoenixtown. Various. in I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 2007: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 373, No. 1312. Dublin, Wordwell

Gosling, P. 2016 Teltown, Co. Meath: Máire MacNeill's ‘principal old road' and the topography of Óenach Tailten. Journal of Irish Archaeology, XXV, 67-87.