1995:230 - CHURCH OF ST. SECUNDINUS, Dunshaughlin, Meath

The excavation was located in a four-acre field on the north side of the church of St Secundinus. A church was reputedly founded here by St Secundinus in the mid-5th century but the first documentary reference is to the death of an abbot in 801. Other references to abbots occur in 833, 843 and 879, with references to coarbs and erenaghs in the 10th and 11th centuries. The ecclesiastical centre was suppressed at some date and there was no large religious house here during the medieval period. However, there are references to a church, which presumably refer to this site.

A site assessment was carried out by Rosanne Meenan in August 1993: a ditch was exposed, orientated east-west and located roughly in the centre of the field, which has a curving northern boundary. An excavation was subsequently carried out by the licensee from November to December 1994.

Three cuttings (1–3) were originally opened up along the line of the ditch, with a further two, at the north-east corner, during topsoil stripping. A third extra cutting (6) was opened up in September 1995 during monitoring.

The main excavation located the curving ditch, which originally enclosed an estimated area, with the church at the centre, approximately 180m in diameter. However, the features were very truncated. The ditch was 4m wide at the upper levels, narrowing to 1m at the base, with an average depth of 2.2m. The remains of an internal bank, which had been comprehensively levelled, were also located, varying in width from 7m to 8m and surviving to 0.4–0.8m in height. The ditch was originally water-filled, serviced by a stone-lined drain leading from a natural spring located beneath the internal bank. The spring was enclosed in a 'stone box'. At some date the bank was levelled and pushed into the ditch, sealing the drain.

After the ditch was filled, small-scale industrial activity took place on the site in the form of four pits filled with ash, charcoal, and burnt stone. The base of all the pits was fire-reddened, suggesting in situ burning. Three of the pits measured 1.1–2.4m long by 0.4–0.9m wide and were 0.1–0.35m in depth. The fourth pit, however, was much larger, measuring 4.7m long, 1.4m wide and 0.8m deep. This contained interleaving layers of ash and charcoal and burnt timber.

The ditch was then recut at some date, through the levelled bank material which had been dumped into the ditch. The recut ditch was smaller in size, measuring 2.8–3.2m in width and 1.6–1.8m in depth.

The very truncated remains of a large oval structure, in the form of a slot-trench and associated post-holes, were located during monitoring of the topsoil-stripping in the north-east corner of the site, outside the line of the ditch. The structure was an estimated 8m in diameter with possible entrances in the northern and southern ends. No other features survive and the entire structure was sealed under a deep layer of charcoal. The latter produced three possible kiln fragments.

In the medieval period the entire field was extensively cultivated and drained using a series of large gullies and ditches, varying in width from 0.3m to 2m and in depth from 0.2m to 0.6m. The sticky grey fill produced sherds of medieval local pottery.

During monitoring in September 1995, the remains of five skeletons, four adults and one juvenile, were located in the middle of the field. The burials, which post-dated the medieval gullies, were all orientated east-west and are possibly related to the strong local tradition of Famine burials in the field.

There were few finds from the site; the pottery included Leinster cooking ware, sherds of local green-glazed pottery, kiln fragments, a stick-pin (from a disturbed context) and assorted pieces of slag. In addition, several fragments of flint were found, one of which was worked.

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