Ring-ditch

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a rise in a fairly level landscape. A penannular ring-ditch with pits to the W and E was identified at the W edge of the route of the M3 motorway in a gradiometer survey (00R0064) by GBS Prospection (2001, 9). This was confirmed in archaeological testing (04E0417) by J. Dempsey of Testing Area 3, Contract 2, prior to the construction of the M3 motorway (excavations.ie: 2004:1184) when the E part of the ring-ditch was sampled.

The broad, flat-bottomed fosse (Wth 6.42m; D 0.59m) enclosed a circular area (int. diam. c. 17.65m; ext. dims c. 30m N-S) but it has a wide opening (Wth c. 18m) at W. Where excavated the fosse had been cut into bedrock and had four fills of clayey silts. Fragments of animal bone together with seven sherds of pottery including a rim-sherd of Beaker were recovered from an upper fill. The only internal feature was a spread (dims 0.97m x 0.71m plus) of clayey silt with burnt stone, flecks of charcoal and fragments of burnt and unburnt bone. An animal tooth from the same level as the Beaker sherd returned a modern date of 1770-1950 (BETA 226218), so the stratigraphy of the sampled ditch is contaminated (Rathbone 2009, 3). (Dempsey 2004, 13-15)

See the attached plan from the gradiometer report by GBS Prospection (2009, fig. A53)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 20 April 2022

References

GBS Prospection 2001 N3 Navan to Dunshaughlin Road, County Meath: Geophysical Survey. Licence: 00R0064. Unpublished report, No. 2000/104. GBS Prospection

Rathbone, S. 2009 M3 Clonee - North of Kells, Contract 2 Dunshaughlin - Navan. Final Report on the Archaeological Excavation of Berrilstown 1, Co. Meath. Licence: E003062. Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services

Dempsey, J. 2004 M3 Clonee - North of Kells, Contract 2 Dunshaughlin - Navan. Report on the Archaeological Assessment at Testing Area 3, Berrilstown, Co. Meath. Licence: 04E0417. Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services