County: Cork Site name: MUCKRIDGE (1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0429
Author: Daniel Noonan for Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Structure
Period/Dating: Iron Age (800 BC-AD 339)
ITM: E 609542m, N 578258m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.956320, -7.861165
During the excavation of an advanced strip-trench, an area measuring 22m north–south by 35m was uncovered on top of the flat-topped ridge that dominates Muckridge townland. Within this area the focus of activity was a U-shaped arrangement of ten post-holes surrounding a hearth and pit. The structure consisted of a single ring of relatively equidistant post-holes without a footing trench or any evidence of superstructure or roof supports. There was a degree of uniformity in size and spacing between the posts of the structure. Their average dimensions were roughly 0.3m in diameter and 0.12m in depth and they were approximately 1.8m apart; however, the posts at the south-western end of the structure were set closer together and may be indicative of rebuilding. The structure had overall dimensions of 6m north–south by 6m.
The hearth was a circular, bowl-shaped cut, roughly 0.7m in diameter and 0.53m deep. Next to this was an oval stone-lined storage pit, measuring 1.6m north-east/south-west by 1.1m and 0.45m in depth. A number of pits were also found in the immediate vicinity of the structure, one of which to the east, C78, produced a blue glass bead and fragments of iron slag. A charcoal sample recovered from pit C5, close to C78, produced a 2-sigma calibration date of AD 20–350 (cal. BP 1930–1600), placing it in the late Iron Age. A number of post-medieval furrows truncated the north-west part of the site.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
