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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ring-ditch

Killegland, County Meath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ring-ditch, Killegland, County Meath, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Killegland
County
Meath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.50846, -6.40548
SMR number
ME045-076002-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1799 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1811 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

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 B is a circular area (int. diam. 19.2m E-W; 18.5m N-S) defined by a V-shaped ditch or fosse (max. Wth 1.2m; max. D 0.32m) that has an uncut entrance causeway (Wth 2.4m) with a metaled surface at S. The stone metaling extends off to the S (L 6.4m) and there was a shallow deposit of charcoal-flecked silty clay and burnt bone partially over the metaling in the E terminus of the fosse. The fosse was filled with charcoal-flecked silty clay from which sherds of coarse decorated pottery and flint flakes were recovered. An inner fosse (Wth 1.2m; D 0.6m) is U-shaped in plan (int. dims 9.4m N-S; 8.9m E-W) with a wide opening (Wth 6.6m) at NW that is probably due to the shallowness of the ditch running out in this area. There were no internal features, and ring-ditch A is just to the NW but its fosse is cut by the outer fosse of this ring-ditch. 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

Kavanagh, J. and Quine, P. 2007 Archaeological Excavation Report, Site I, 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

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
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