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,

The most southerly structure (int. diam. c. 9m) is defined by a rounded ditch (Wth 0.64m; D 0.55m) which cuts the ditch of the ring-ditch to the N (ME045-075004-) and has an uncut entrance causeway (Wth 1.2m) at E. The ditch has a primary fill of clay/silt with some charcoal flecking, and an upper fill with large quantities of charcoal on the N side. Two pits, one (dims 1.8m x 1.3m; D 0.14m) with in situ burning and a charcoal-flecked sandy silt fill with a small amount of burnt bone, are within the enclosure. The other (dims 2m x 0.63m; D 0.35m) was filled with a grey, charcoal-flecked sandy clay and was partially truncated by the enclosing ditch. An isolated pit (dims 0.84m x 0.74m; D 0.16m) with a charcoal-flecked silty clay fill and burnt bone was 6.5m NW of the most southerly structure. (Kavanagh 2007)

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

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 22 December 2021

References

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 Unpublished report, ICON Archaeology

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 Unpublished report, Arch-Tech