County: Meath Site name: PILLTOWN/PAINESTOWN/KILTROUGH/BEY BEG/BEY MORE/PLATIN/CAULSTOWN/CARRANSTOWN/COMMONS (DULEEK)/NEWTOWN/LONGFORD/DOWNESTOWN/GILLINSTOWN/GARBALLAGH/THOMASTOWN/SICILY/TUITERATH/FLEMINGSTOWN/KENTSTOWN/KNOCKHARLEY/CURRAGHTOWN/BROWNSTOWN/REALTOGE/STAFFORDSTOWN/FOLLISTOWN/MOORETOWN/ALEXANDER REID
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0356
Author: Mark Clinton for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 688918m, N 762584m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.605548, -6.656417
The laying of a new gas pipeline from south of Drogheda to the outskirts of Navan necessitated the stripping of a 15m-wide corridor and the subsequent digging of a trench that varied in width from 0.65m to 2.3m (at top) and 0.7m to 0.75m (at bottom); the average depth of the trench was 2m.
No features of a proven archaeological nature were uncovered during the operation. Indeed the corridor, when taken as random-sample survey, can be seen to have reaffirmed the perceived archaeological profile of the traversed terrain and its general environs. Of the 27 townlands crossed by the pipeline corridor, seventeen, to date, are totally bereft of archaeological remains of any description. A further eight townlands contain a mere one to three known sites. Only the early historic archaeological complex centred on Duleek indicates any proven significant activity in the general area. Evidence for a Neolithic presence is almost negligible. Similarly, the Bronze Age and Iron Age are poorly represented.
Given the size and land quality of the area under discussion, the sum total of remains does not help to establish the existence of intensive activity during practically all of the recognised epochs.
Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
