Ring-ditch

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a low E-W ridge. Centre-line testing (04E0485) by R. O’Hara (2004) of two fields in Testing area 1 of the Dunboyne link road (R157) to the M3 (excavations.ie 2004:1198) confirmed the presence of archaeological features where magnetic susceptibility and gradiometer surveys (06R0038) by J. Nicholls (2006) had already identified numerous anomalies. The area within the road-take was completely excavated (E003023) by A. O’Connell (O’Connell and Clark 2009) who uncovered a complex of monuments dating from at least the Early Bronze Age up to the high medieval period (excavations.ie: 2005: AD5; 2006:1525).

The monument consists of a large bivallate enclosure with a small D-shaped annexe (ME050-048005-) attached to the S of the outer fosse at SW. The W part of a ring-ditch was within the excavated area, and it was just inside the inner fosse of the concentric enclosure at S. The ditch (Wth 1.6-2m; D 0.6-0.8m) with five fills of varying character enclosed a circular area (int. diam. c. 3.6m). No artefacts were recovered but bone was present in all of the fills, and while some is human dog is the only species positively identified. A charcoal sample from the primary fill produced a C14 date of 781-417 cal. BC while a sample from the final fill provided a date of 161 cal. BC – cal. AD 68. (O’Connell and Clark 2009, 5-6; O'Connell 2009a)

See the attached image of the post-excavation plan from O'Connell and Clark (2009, fig. 63)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 5 November 2021

O’Connell, A. & Clark, A. 2009 M3 Clonee – North of Kells. Contract 1 Clonee – Dunshaughlin. Final report on the Archaeological Excavation of Castlefarm 1, Co. Meath. Licence: E003023. Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services

O’Connell, A. 2009a Excavations at Castlefarm: director’s first findings. In Deevy, M. and Donald Murphy 2009 Places Along the Way, 43-56. NRA Scheme Monographs: 5.

O’Hara, R. 2004 M3 Clonee- North of Kells. Contract 1 Clonee-Dunshaughlin. Archaeological Assessment at Testing Area 1, Castlefarm, County Meath. Licence: 04E0485. Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services

References

Nicholls, J. 2006 Castlefarm Testing Area 1. M3 Clonee - North of Kells Contract 1, County Meath. Archaeological Geophysical Survey. Target Archaeological Geophysics. Unpublished report No. 06/007.