1986:65 - RANDALSTOWN, Meath

Excavation took place over 15 weeks in the summer of 1986 on a souterrain and well at the site of a tailings dam being constructed for Tara Mines Ltd. The excavation, carried out on behalf of the National Museum, was funded by Tara Mines and equipped by the Office of Public Works.

The souterrain was uncovered by a mechanical excavator in September 1985 on the summit of a low hill where there was a local tradition of a tunnel. The spring well was at the bottom of the slope 60m to the west. The site is some 840m to the east of the souterrain, near St Anne's Church which was excavated in 1985, and 630m north-west of Simonstown ringfort excavated by F.P. Kelly in 1975.

The souterrain may best be described as L-shaped. Entrance was by means of a curving ramp 8m long at the end of which a 0.4m step led up into the main passage running at a right-angle to the left. The 11.70m-long passage ended in a beehive chamber 3.10m in diameter giving a total souterrain length of 22.8m. The souterrain had been largely destroyed probably in the medieval period leaving only a few stones of the base course on the ramp. The beehive chamber was roof-less but five capstones remained in the passage where the walls were intact. The passage began with a creep, 0.45m high, after which the passage in the approach to the chamber was 1m high and 0.90m wide. Bones of cattle, sheep, pig and cat were found on the ramp floor. The rectangular end-plate of a composite bone comb was found at the back of the chamber.

A surface area of 370 sq.m was excavated. Five pits found near the chamber are undated. One of the pits, measuring 0.9m x 0.75m x 0.4m deep, contained the articulated bones of ten horse feet, one complete horse skull and the jawbones of two others, and a bone pin 156mm long. A small barbed-amid-tanged arrowhead was found on the surface of the glacial till. Machine-dug trial trenches revealed no evidence for an enclosure.

The well, known as the Meara Well, was a stone-built structure possibly of late medieval date with a modern lacing of concrete. A 100sq.m area was opened around the well. Under topsoil a clay deposit of uncertain origin overlay a buried peat, which had been disturbed by human activity. A bronze pin with watchwinder head and zig-zag ornament on the stem came from the base of the clay. From the surface of the peat and disturbed areas of it a granite saddle quern and boat-shaped rubbing stone, a flint round-scraper and end-scraper, a fragment of bronze possibly from a palstave and a small quantity of animal bone were recovered.

6 St Ultans, Laytown, Co. Drogheda