2000:0717 - TULLYALLEN (4), Louth

This site was discovered during monitoring of topsoil-stripping by Kieran Campbell for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd (see Excavations 2000, No. 714). It lay in the road-take of the R168, a road improvement scheme that was part of the Northern Motorway Project by Meath County Council. Two ditches were noted about 30m apart, with burnt stone within the enclosure.

On excavation it was found that the southernmost ditch, F1, was 14m long and gently curving; it was 1.5m wide and 1m deep and contained three main fills. Several flints, a little slag and burnt bone were recovered.

A smaller ditch, F3, ran south-east from F1 and off the eastern edge of the road-take; it was 25.6m x 0.5–1.2m wide and 0.2–0.62m deep. It contained a few flints and pieces of slag.

F8, a fragment of a similar ditch 4.4m x 0.7m x 0.2m, lay west of F3 and ran off the western edge of the take.

F2, apparently the northern counterpart of F1, was actually a spread 4.2m x 2m x 0.15m, overlying F58, a stony layer 4.3m x 2m x 0.3m. Numerous flints and a little slag were found in this area.

F4, an additional ditch, lay 3m to the north. It was 14m x 2.5m x 1m and was modern and agricultural in character.

F5 was a burnt spread 5m x 0.55m x 0.26m, containing flints, burnt and unburnt bone, and charcoal.

F16 was a pit 2.2m x 1.04m x 0.48m, banjo-shaped, with a bowl-shaped east end, wider and deeper than the west end. It had four fills and included abundant charcoal, a small piece of burnt bone and two flints. The subsoil into which the pit was cut was heat-stained red-brown.

F46 nearby was a similarly shaped pit, 2.37m x 0.45–1.08m x 0.35–0.91m deep. There were nine fills with abundant charcoal, seven pieces of slag, several flints and frequent occurrences of small flakes of burnt bone. The subsoil into which the pit was cut was heat-stained red-brown.

Post-excavation work is in progress.

Umberstown Great, Summerhill, Co. Meath