2001:959 - DONORE 1, Donore, Meath

The site was discovered during monitoring along the line of the Northern Motorway, Contract 7 (Drogheda Bypass). It was in an area of firm ground on a north-facing slope rising up from the River Boyne. When first uncovered by mechanical excavator the site appeared as a scattering of small subsoil-cut features and a pair of large pits grouped within an area measuring 20m north–south by 10m.

The pair of large pits appeared to form the focus of the site. Both were filled with a loose, darkish grey soil, C13, with a high composition of burnt stone in a charcoal-rich matrix. This burnt mound-like material also filled a depression which formed a link between the two features. The morphology of the pits was similar; both were roughly suboval in plan with gently sloping, rounded sides leading to undulating rounded bases. The larger of the two pits measured 2.4m by 1.55m by 0.36m deep. The smaller was 1.62m by 0.6m by 0.1m deep. The site overall was heavily truncated by machine activity and any possible archaeology which may have been present to the east of these pits would have been removed by bulldozer in the topsoil-stripping process.

Three other subsoil-cut features were excavated. The morphology and sterile fills of these features did not support any particular interpretation of the site’s date or function.