County: Meath Site name: BECTIVE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0022
Author: Carmel Duffy, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 686301m, N 759716m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.580224, -6.696749
An investigation was carried out in January 2000 on behalf of Meath County Council prior to the realignment and widening of the R161 Trim–Navan road. The new road ran through an embanked, bow-shaped tree ring measuring c. 70m x 80m in the demesne of Bective House.
Four trenches 10m x 2m were dug by hand. Two were in the interior of the feature, and the other two straddled the bank, one to the east and one to the west of where it met the enclosure around Bective church and graveyard.
Nothing archaeological was found. This would indicate that the tree ring is a landscape feature to enhance the parkland of nearby Bective House. At the opposite, southern end of the tree ring, a linear, double-banked feature is visible but could not be investigated as it is outside the road-take.
Umberstown Great, Summerhill, Co. Meath
