Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Embanked enclosure
Fourknocks,micknanstown (duleek Upper By., Clonalvy Par.), County Meath, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Fourknocks,micknanstown (duleek Upper By., Clonalvy Par.)
- County
- Meath
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Coordinates
- 53.60040, -6.32922
- SMR number
- ME033-025----
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
This monument is described by Stout (1991, 259) as:
This enclosure, first detected through aerial survey undertaken by Swan, is located on a north-facing slope above the River Delvin. The underlying geology is limestone and shale on which a grey-brown podzolic has developed. The ridge is crowned by the Fourknocks passage tomb (Hartnett 1957, 265). This monument is the smallest of a group of three enclosures 1.5km north-west of Fourknocks passage tomb. Heathtown (ME033-011----) is 1km to the west-north-west and Micknanastown (ME033-013----) is 625m to the north-west. A bank encloses a roughly circular area. It has a maximum overall diameter of 110m, an average height of only 0.5m and is 10-20m wide at its base. The interior is saucer-shaped, probably as a result of using materials scarped from the interior for the construction of the bank. There is no evidence for a ditch. Spot phosphate and magnetic susceptibility readings were high along the inside of the embankment, indicating the presence of burning or burial activity. In the north-north-west segment of the enclosure (283 degrees T) there is a 5m –wide break in the bank which is probably an original opening. (Thornton 1980, 90-1; Moore 1987, 40, No. 305)
Date of revision: 10 January 2017
References
Stout, G. 1991 The embanked enclosures of the Boyne region. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 91C, 245-84.
Thornton, G. 1980 A survey of the earthen enclosures of the Boyne Valley and related sites. MA thesis, University College, Dublin.
Moore, M. 1987 Archaeological inventory of county Meath. Dublin. Stationery Office.
Nearby in the register
- Pit-burialunder 1 mi
- Passage tomb artunder 1 mi
- Megalithic structureunder 1 mi
- Cairn - unclassifiedunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.