County: Meath Site name: RAFFIN FORT, Raffin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Conor Newman
Site type: Ceremonial enclosure
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 681933m, N 782815m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.788454, -6.756593
A second season of excavations was carried out at Raffin Fort in the summer of 1990. Still further bulldozer disturbance was revealed in the perimeter fosse, most notably in the area of the entrance way. Enough clues remained to indicate the presence of an undug causeway leading across the fosse at this point. Preliminary indications are that the entrance gave access to the eastern one-third of the site which was made separate from the western portion by a counter-scarp bank and ditch. A row of post-pipes along the crest of the scarp indicate the presence of a fence along the top of the bank.
Two phases of activity are evidenced in the western two-thirds of the site. The earlier, which may coincide stratigraphically with the digging of the counter-scarp feature, is evidenced by a series of pits and an enigmatic linear stone feature. The later phase saw the erection of a round house (c. 7m diameter) the foundation trench of which cuts through both sets of earlier features. The foundation trench originally supported lengths of horizontally-placed timbers, into which, one may speculate, vertical timbers were once morticed to form the house walls.
Dating evidence comes in the form of coarse pottery, a miniscule blue glass bead and a safety-pin fibula, the positive identification of which remains problematic owing to its extremely fragmented condition. These few artefacts point towards an Iron Age date which may be confirmed when the results of C14 analysis are known.
48 Woodley Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14
