County: Meath Site name: DUNSHAUGHLIN: Main Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0283
Author: Rosanne Meenan
Site type: Pit
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 696830m, N 751822m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.507467, -6.540250
Monitoring was a condition of planning permission. The development site is at the south end of Main Street, Dunshaughlin, within the area of archaeological potential as defined by the Urban Survey for Meath. A motte (SMR 44:4) survives in the graveyard c. 70–80m to the south-east.
The monastic settlement of St Secundinius was founded to the north of the village. According to tradition, the church (SMR 44:3) was founded in the mid-5th century, and there are references to it in sources in the 9th century and later.
Monitoring was carried out on excavation of foundation trenches for the development, comprising a row of three two-storey retail units. Foundations of previous structures were exposed at the front corners of the site. A pit-like feature was exposed in the foundation trench for the back wall; it was interpreted as a soak hole for late 19th-century stables.
Otherwise nothing of archaeological interest was exposed.
Roestown, Drumree, Co. Meath
