County: Meath Site name: NEWGRANGE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Ann Lynch, National Parks and Monuments Branch, Office of Public Works, Dublin
Site type: Megalithic tomb - passage tomb
Period/Dating: Neolithic (4000BC-2501 BC)
ITM: E 700679m, N 772746m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.694712, -6.475492
A section along the northern perimeter of the cairn at Newgrange had begun to slump forward over the kerbstones in the early 1980s. Limited works were carried out in this area by David Sweetman in 1984 and were continued by the writer in June and July 1988. The area concerned extended from K56 eastwards to K66.
For safety reasons, the bulk of the loose cairn material was removed by machine along a strip c.2m wide behind the kerbstones. Steel and timber shuttering was then put in place before excavation proper began.
The pre cairn sod mound exposed in O'Kelly's 'North Cutting' was revealed extending eastward to behind K61 where it peters out. Extensive sampling for pollen/macrofossil analysis and radiocarbon dating was carried out on the turves of the mound. Kerbstones 56-61 were sitting on the sod mound, propped and stabilised by smaller stones. The remaining kerbstones, outside the limits of the sod mound, were sitting in sockets cut into the undisturbed boulder clay. Layers of turves (averaging three) had been placed on the old ground surface before the stone cairn was constructed. No new artefacts were recovered during the excavation.
When K65 & K66 were fully exposed in 1984, artwork previously unrecorded was revealed. On the south-western face of K66, two pocked closed spirals were clearly visible with irregular pocked and incised zig-zags closeby. A single pocked spiral was revealed on the northern face of K65.
Restoration and consolidation of the cairn is now in progress. Stone filled gabions will provide a revetment behind the kerbstones to take the weight of the cairn material and allow for adequate drainage. It is hoped to extend these works eastward to K83 which means that further excavation will be necessary in 1989.
