County: Meath Site name: BECTIVE (Area 1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0722
Author: Carmel Duffy, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 688918m, N 762584m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.605548, -6.656417
The site was selected as a potentially sensitive area during an archaeological assessment carried out by Valerie J. Keeley (1999) for the proposed realignment and widening by Meath County Council of the R161 Trim–Navan road from Bective to Balreask.
The County Council proposes to widen the existing bridge over the River Clady, and after consultation with Dúchas it was agreed to dig two investigation trenches, one on either side of the river.
The trenches were 10m x 2m. The northern one was 1.4m deep and contained up to 0.6m of modern rubbish building up the riverbank, underlain by red/brown clay 0.1m deep, grey silt 0.2m deep, and grey gravel in the floor of the trench, which was at the water-table. The grey silt was most likely the former flood-plain of the river. The southern trench was 1.05m deep and contained sod and topsoil, underlain by grey/brown clay up to 0.45m deep, beneath which was red/brown peat 0.4m deep, underlain by grey/green gravel, again at the water-table.
Neither trench contained any archaeological evidence, finds or structures.
The Mill Road, Umberstown Great, Summerhill, Co. Meath
