Ring-ditch

The National Monuments Service's description

Located towards the top a gentle NW-facing slope c. 125m W of Killegland church (ME045-004----). Archaeological testing (05E1321) by S. Halliday (2007) in advance of a housing development identified numerous archaeological features (excavations.ie 2006:1496) some of which were investigated under the original licence (excavations.ie 2006:1496), but others, numbered Sites I and III, were resolved (excavations.ie 2006:1499) later by J. Kavanagh (2007) under a different licence (06E0871).
Site III consists of a bivallate ring-ditch (ME045-075----), with a line of five smaller ring-ditches touching edge to edge and extending S from this large feature. These structures might be hut-sites or barrows, and all of them are truncated slightly on the W side by a later N-S ditch that turns W at its N end as it encounters the outer ditch of the large ring-ditch. The E edges of the structures also tend to disappear through plough action. Although no burials are associated directly with these features neither are there any hearths or post-holes, which suggests that all of them might be barrows.
Just S of the ring-ditch (ME045-075001-) is a circular feature (int. diam. 4.2-4.4m) defined by a slight ditch (Wth 0.37m; D 0.17m) which is exhausted at SE but cuts the ditch of the structure just to its S (ME045-075003-).

See the attached plan from Kavanagh (2007, fig. 5)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 22 December 2021

References

Halliday, S. 2007 Archaeological Monitoring Report. Proposed Residential Development, Killegland, Ashbourne, Co. Meath. Licence: 05E1321. Unpublished report, Arch-Tech

Kavanagh, J. 2007 Archaeological Excavation Report, Site III, Killegland, County Meath. Licence: 06E0871. Unpublished report, ICON Archaeology