County: Meath Site name: NORTHERN MOTORWAY (Gormanston to Monasterboice), Gormanston/Sarsfieldstown/Claristown/Balloy/Platin/Lagavooren/Rathmullan/Donore/Sheephouse/Oldbridge
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0282
Author: Kieran Campbell, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 716215m, N 766768m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.637790, -6.242594
This licence was originally issued to cover topsoil-stripping on the route of the Northern Motorway (Gormanston to Monasterboice) in Tullyallen and Mell townlands, Co. Louth, for a period of nine weeks from 2 May 2000. The licence was ultimately extended to 30 September 2001 to cover monitoring of the entire route of the motorway in County Louth, with the associated link-roads and approaches to the Boyne Bridge, and also for monitoring on certain sections of the motorway in County Meath. Monitoring of topsoil-stripping took place on certain sections of the motorway route in County Meath between 2 June 2000 and 28 February 2001 under this licence. Also included was the monitoring of the excavation of two coffer-dams for the pylons of the Boyne Bridge. However, archaeological excavation by the writer was limited to three small sites uncovered at Oldbridge on the access road to the Boyne Bridge (Excavations 2000, Nos 769–71; 00E0929, 00E0938 and 00E0939). All other sites uncovered under this licence were excavated by Ian Russell, Dermot Nelis, Emmet Stafford and Rob Lynch.
The monitoring was carried out on two separate sections of the motorway at the south and north ends of the route south of the River Boyne in County Meath. At the south end six potential archaeological sites were noted during monitoring between 10 October and 7 November 2000 on a 3.2km length of the motorway from Gormanston to Balloy. These sites were subsequently excavated by Ian Russell in 2001.
Licence no. & Site
01E0041, Sarsfieldstown 1, see No. 1049 Excavations 2001;
01E0042, Sarsfieldstown 2, see No. 1050 Excavations 2001;
01E0038, Claristown 1, see No. 946 Excavations 2001;
01E0039, Claristown 2, see No. 947 Excavations 2001;
01E0040, Claristown 3, see No. 948 Excavations 2001;
01E0037, Balloy 1, see No. 944 Excavations 2001.
At the northern end of the motorway in County Meath monitoring took place from 10 October 2000 to 28 February 2001 on a 3.7km length of the route from Platin north to the River Boyne at Oldbridge. Archaeological sites had already been recorded over much of this section of road during test-trenching by Valerie J. Keeley Ltd in September–October 2000. Additional material came to light during topsoil-stripping and the subsequent excavations are reported in this volume.
Licence no. & Site & Excavator
01E0267, Oldbridge 4, D. Nelis, see No. 1017 Excavations 2001;
01E0449, Sheephouse 2 extension, E. Stafford, see No. 1056 Excavations 2001;
01E0398, Donore 1, R. Lynch, see No. 959 Excavations 2001;
01E0399, Donore 2, R. Lynch, see No. 960 Excavations 2001;
01E0400, Donore 3, R. Lynch, see No. 961Excavations 2001;
01E0383, Rathmullan 1, D. Nelis, see No. 1030 Excavations 2001;
01E0433, Rathmullan 9 extension, D. Nelis, see No. 1034 Excavations 2001;
01E0914, Lagavooren 15 extension, E. Stafford, see No. 1039 Excavations 2001;
01E0396, Lagavooren 17, E. Stafford/D. Murphy, see No. 1005 Excavations 2001.
6 St Ultan’s, Laytown, Drogheda
