County: Louth Site name: MELL 3
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0631
Author: Thaddeus C. Breen, for Project Director Valerie J. Keeley
Site type: Souterrain
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 705750m, N 777227m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.733958, -6.397205
Excavation of this souterrain, commenced during 2000 (Excavations 2000, No. 696) continued. The roof having already been removed, the walls were recorded and dismantled, and the construction trench was fully excavated.
Two ditches to the west of the souterrain were also excavated. Both of them crossed the site in an approximately north-west/south-east direction, but they had both been truncated by the construction of a haul-route before excavation.
The first, Feature F, was 27m south-west of the souterrain. It was 2–3.5m wide, and ranged in shape from a shallow U-sectioned ditch 0.4m deep, towards the west, to a V-sectioned ditch 1.56m deep, closer to its eastern end. The fill consisted mostly of light grey/brown sterile clay resembling the subsoil. The only find was a piece of iron slag.
The second ditch, Feature G, was 41m south of the souterrain. It was a V-sectioned ditch, 1.18m deep, and 1.7–2.8m wide. The three main fills were dark and silty. Finds included a flint blade, cores and débitage, prehistoric pottery, a cylindrical wooden object, and two items of lignite or similar material: a spindle-whorl and a fragment of a bracelet.
13 Wainsfort Crescent, Dublin 6W
