Kiln - corn-drying

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. Only two features that can be described as kilns were identified. One from the NE part of the excavated area was between the inner and outer fosses of the large enclosure. It was of figure-of-eight form (dims 2.54m E-W; 0.56-0.87m; D 0.24m) cut into the subsoil. The fire-reddened W pit had three fills which produced charred samples of barley, oats, rye and wheat and a C14 date of 662-885 cal. AD. The second kiln cut the top of the outer enclosure ditch at S and was also of figure-of-eight form (dims 1.5m x 1m; D 037m). Its seven fills included two with clay lining and two oxidized layers while the uppermost had four sherds of high medieval pottery, a stick pin and a sewing needle. (O'Connell 2009; O’Connell and Clark 2009, 29)

See the attached image:
_1 Post-excavation plan of the large enclosure from O'Connell and Clark (2009, fig. 63)

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 Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services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 Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services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.