Well

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. Ten wells or water-holes are located between the inner and outer fosses of the large enclosure in the W-N area. Water-hole 1 is a circular pit (diam. 3m; max. D 2.28m) with straight sides and a flat base that draws water, and it happens to be situated between the inner and outer fosses of the large enclosure. Three layers with a large silt content filled the bottom two thirds of the pit. No artefacts were recovered but charcoal from the second lowest fill produced a C14 date of 2131-1886 cal. BC. Its upper fills contained some burnt stone, and an adjacent pit (diam. 1.5-1.75m; max. D 0.68m) with similar material may be the trough and the last remnant of a fulacht fia. (O’Connell and Clark 2009, 4-5)
The remaining water-holes are medieval in date and are located in the W-N area between the inner and outer fosses of the large enclosure. No. 9 (dims 1.8m x 1.7m; D 0.54m) with a C14 date of 668-870 cal. AD was truncated by the fosse of the outer enclosure that was dug right over it. The water-holes generally produce radiocarbon dates between the end of the seventh century and the end of the ninth century AD. They are normally circular to oval (dims 2.95m x 2.2m; D 1.7m: to 4.64m x 4.1m; D 2.21m) in form, are usually water-logged at the bottom, and above the basal silt their fill will include some redeposited boulder clay slumped from the sides and other dumped material. Three of the water-holes have single steps of unexcavated boulder clay at one side of the funnel-shaped pits. As the basal deposits are waterlogged they preserve wooden and leather artefacts and also provide copious environmental samples. No. 4 is perhaps the largest (dims 4.7m E-W; 2.7m N-S; max. D 2.35m) with a step (D below top 1.05m) at its W point. This well is also unique in having four large post-holes straddling its mouth that may have formed a superstructure to assist in raising heavy water-filled vessels. Water-hole 8 (dims 4.2m x 3m; D 1.56m) was just outside the line of the outer enclosure at W and produced the earliest medieval radiocarbon date amongst the wells of 400-570 cal. AD. It may be contemporary with the establishment of the inner fosse of the large enclosure in Phase 2. (O'Connell 2009; O’Connell and Clark 2009, 23-29)

See the attached images:
_1 Post-excavation plan of the large enclosure from O'Connell and Clark (2009, fig. 63)
_2 Plan of the water-holes from O'Connell and Clark (2009, fig. 21)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 5 November 2021

O’Connell, A. 2009 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’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’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.