County: Meath Site name: RANDALSTOWN, Simonstown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 95E0232
Author: Kieran Campbell
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 685932m, N 778216m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.746492, -6.697200
A number of possible archaeological sites were identified through field survey and documentary research conducted as part of an Environmental Impact Statement for a proposed extension to a Tara Mines Ltd tailing dam. The sites were located in the townlands of Randalstown and Simonstown in two separate 'borrow areas' from which it is proposed to extract material for the construction of the dam.
At Simonstown, archaeological deposits were found at only one of the six locations investigated by machine-dug test-trenches. On a ridge of high ground, which was considered as a possible location of archaeological sites, trenches totalling 105m in length uncovered a number of features excavated into the till. A small ditch 1.5m wide and 0.4m deep, with a fill containing charcoal and occasional heat-fractured stones, was traced for a distance of 16m. In an adjoining field, 100m to the east, a test-trench exposed two conjoined pits with diameters of 1.1m and 0.95m. The edge of one of the pits was oxidised and the fills of both pits were charcoal-flecked. It is envisaged that topsoil-stripping will be carried out on a larger scale in this area in advance of the development.
At Randalstown test-trenches were excavated across a number of low rises in fields on the east side of the Yellow River, upstream from sites previously excavated at earlier stages of the tailings dam construction (Excavations 1975–76, 30; Excavations 1985, 32). Nothing of archaeological interest was observed.
6 St Ultans, Laytown, Drogheda, Co. Louth
