1999:696 - GUN HILL, Lobinstown, Meath

Monitoring was conducted on the summit of Gun Hill, Lobinstown, Co. Meath, during the removal of a concrete base for a mobile phone mast and its associated cable network. The base measured 1.2m by 1.6m and was constructed within the confines of a rectilinear earthwork, recorded as 'Cromwell's Battery', consisting of a raised rectangular area defined by scarps and divided into two unequal parts by a north-south field fence and a double ditch.

The areas of excavation were confined to those that had already been disturbed by the insertion of the mast and the concrete base. The concrete base itself was only 0.2m thick and was laid on a thin layer of modern sand and gravel hardcore, which in turn lay above the natural subsoil and the redeposited fill of the cut for the timber mast. The mast itself was a timber telegraph pole and had already been cut down, leaving c. 2.5m of its base still to be removed. A small trench measuring 3m by 2m was excavated to the east of the pole to facilitate its extraction, exposing the natural, gravelly clay 0.3m below a thin layer of brown, sticky topsoil. The cut for the mast measured c. 1m by 2m and had been cut through the natural, gravelly clay to a depth of c. 2.5m and backfilled with fine, grey gravel. The ESB cables for the mast were to be laid within plastic ducting that had been laid in a trench 40m long by 1m, along the southern field boundary and partially through the bank of the earthwork. This trench was excavated to a depth of c. 0.3m to the top of the plastic ducting through a layer of redeposited natural and topsoil.

No finds were recovered, and no archaeological deposits or features were exposed. No further work is necessary on the site.

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