2001:955 - COOKSTOWN, Meath

The assessment was carried out in advance of a development of industrial units in a field directly to the north of this church site at Cookstown, Ashbourne. There appears to be very little information on the origins of the monument, the earliest reference being to a chapel at the location in Dopping’s Visitation Book of 1682–5 (Ellison 1972). The site more than likely has its origins in the Early Christian period, although little remains of the conventional ecclesiastical enclosure described by Oliver Davies in 1942 in the SMR files. He recorded a circular graveyard with a diameter of approximately 45m beside a river, bounded by a low bank and fosse. Only the foundations of the church were visible, with internal dimensions of approximately 9m by 5m. Davies recorded a hollow in the ground to the west of the church, which he thought may have indicated the presence of a tower.

The first edition of the six-inch Ordnance Survey map depicts an ovoid enclosure which has now disappeared, although the curving field boundary to the east would suggest that the site was originally bigger. The Ballybin Road does not seem to have curved around the projected western side of the enclosure but to have cut through it.

The site was again surveyed in 1970, by which time grass had covered the foundations of a small building with an east–west orientation, seemingly containing two spaces, the larger one to the east. The site was within a rectangular graveyard, overgrown with bushes, and no gravestones were visible. An inspection established that the only surviving hint of an enclosure on the eastern side of the road was the field boundary in the south-eastern quadrant, which was further demarcated for several metres by a stream. Moreover, the immediate area of the site appeared to have been disturbed in recent years, with evidence of ground reduction specifically in the area of the church. The area outside the projected line of the enclosure remains under tillage.

The area was investigated by mechanically excavating three trenches with a 1m back bucket to approximately 1.2m below the present ground surface. The layout of the test-trenches was designed to cause minimum disturbance to deposits within the notional church enclosure and to establish whether any evidence remained for the bank and fosse recorded by Davies. The trenches extended radially from a point towards the centre of the larger of the two projected enclosures and were opened to over twice the bucket width.

Trench 1 was excavated for 40m from a point close to the centre of the projected enclosure due north towards the bend in the Ballybin Road. At 12m north a cut in the silty loam and the black/grey clay was recorded. The cut appeared to be V-shaped, although the sides had eroded and collapsed further after the test-trench was excavated. It was approximately 1.2m wide at the top and the bottom was at least 1m below the present ground surface. It was filled with grey silt which was mixed with materials from the eroded sides. No finds were recovered and water poured in at approximately 0.95m.

There was no evidence for the bank recorded by Davies, although it is possible that the layer of silty loam recorded on the southern side of the cut may constitute the ploughed-out remains of such a feature.

Trench 2 was excavated from a point close to the centre of the projected enclosure for 40m to the north-north-east. The stratigraphical sequence was very similar to that recorded in Trench 1. The position of the cut feature relative to its location in Trench 1 indicated that it was linear and that it constituted the straight boundary depicted on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map.

At the northern end of Trench 2 the ground rose sharply by 1m, approximately along the projected line of the enclosure as defined by the curving field boundary in the south-eastern quadrant. Attempts made to extend the trench through this feature were abandoned owing to the boggy nature of the soil immediately below it. The scarp would, however, appear to be of recent origin and for its 8m length would appear to be more linear than curved. It was possibly created when the ground level in this area of the field was reduced.

Trench 3 extended for 50m to the east-north-east of a point 8m east of the southern end of Trench 2. The ground was much wetter than in the other trenches and was slightly lower. The trench was excavated at this location to investigate the possibility that the original enclosure followed the line of the curve suggested by the field boundary.

If the field boundary curve were projected through the line of the test-trench, it would presumably have intersected somewhere in the last 10m. There was, however, no suggestion of such a feature, although water ingress was quite heavy at approximately 0.5m below the surface. The cut feature recorded in Trenches 1 and 2 was not located in Trench 3, although it is possible that the eastern return of the feature lies just to the west of the western end of the trench.

The results of the test-trenching would suggest, therefore, that the boundary as depicted on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map survives under the disturbed ploughsoil. Although no evidence was recorded for a larger enclosure collinear with the curve of the field boundary, a combination of weather conditions and water ingress rendered visibility difficult in this area. Although the trenches were quite narrow, it would not appear that any occupational evidence or burials survived towards their southern ends. While such evidence may have been ephemeral in the first instance, it would seem that the combination of ground reduction and ploughing has removed old ground surfaces in the area. The clearance of the site removed the masonry of the church to the south, where it would appear to have been piled close to the bank of the stream.

It is unnecessary here to overstate how, in the space of less than 60 years, this site has literally disappeared. Dúchas has recommended that the developer redesign the layout of the factory units and that further ground reduction in the area be monitored.

Reference
Ellison, C.C. 1972 Dopping’s Visitation Book 1682–1685. Ríocht na Mídhe 5 (2), 6.