County: Meath Site name: DULLEK: Main Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 96E0056
Author: Rosanne Meenan, Roestown, Drumree, Co. Meath.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 704733m, N 768504m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.655804, -6.415564
A 1733 sketch by Austin Cooper showed a motte beside a stream running through Duleek. A large development of houses is planned for the vicinity of the site of the motte, which had been destroyed by the time of the first-edition OS map. A condition of planning permission required the developer to have an archaeological report prepared prior to commencement of development.
In the southernmost portion of the site, which fronts on to Main Street, a layer of redeposited boulder clay was exposed which produced one sherd of medieval pottery and one animal bone. This layer underlay the topsoil and was 300–400mm deep. Its function could not be determined.
The major part of the development lay behind Main Street, backing onto the stream beside which the motte lay. Five test-trenches and four test-pits were excavated here. There were extensive layers of gravel here, overlain in most cases by topsoil. In certain locations there was evidence for redeposited layers of clay, but it was not possible to define their limits or interpret their functions. The testing bore out K. Campbell's findings of 1981 (pers. comm.) that the site had been quarried in the past, probably in the thirteenth century at the time when the motte was reduced, and that there was a mixed stratigraphy of medieval and post-medieval layers.
