Ring-ditch

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a slight rise at the tip of a low SE-NW spur and with the meandering W-E Broad Meadow River c. 150m to the W and N. Archaeological testing (05E1321) by S. Halliday (2007) in advance of a housing development identified numerous archaeological features 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) by J. Kavanagh (Kavanagh and Quine 2007) under a different licence (06E0871). Site I consists of two ring-ditches, and they might survive partially in a green area.
Ring-ditch A is a circular area (int. diam. 18.26m; ext. diam. 22.5m) defined by a U-shaped ditch or fosse (max. Wth 1.52m; D c. 0.5m) that has an uncut causeway (Wth 5.25m) at S. The ditch was cut at SE by the ditch of the second ring-ditch (ME045-076002-), which is centered further SE, but the ditch of ring-ditch A has a primary layer of sterile brown clay with some silt. One sherd of pottery, flint debitage, and a possible hammer stone were recovered from it. This layer was overlain by a charcoal-rich layer only on the N side. The single central pit (diam. 0.67m; D 0.22m) was filled with clay that had minimal charcoal but no bone. Four pits (dims 1.5-1.8m; D 0.25m) filled with charcoal-rich silty clay and traces of oxidized clay were 13-20m distant from the ring-ditches but produced no artefacts. (Kavanagh and Quine 2007)

See the attached plan from Kavanagh and Quine (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 Unpublished report, Arch-Tech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. and Quine, P. 2007 Archaeological Excavation Report, Site I, Killegland, County Meath. Licence: 06E0871. Unpublished report, ICON Archaeology