County: Meath Site name: LISDORNAN 3
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0415
Author: Ian Russell, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 712495m, N 767777m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.647664, -6.298443
The site was exposed at chainage 15140 between the Lisdornan Road and the Dardistown Road during monitoring of topsoil-stripping of groundworks associated with the construction of Contract 7 of the Northern Motorway Project under licence number 01E0090.
On excavation, it consisted of a large burnt mound that was exposed below the sod and topsoil and a humic peat layer that had formed within the immediate lowland area surrounding the site. The burnt mound measured 19.4m by 14.6m and 0.22m in depth. Six pits were exposed beneath it, one of which may represent a shallow subrectangular trough. Three further pits and spreads were also exposed beyond the burnt mound. Two identifiable troughs were exposed—the first consisted of an oval wattle-lined pit which had been cut by a later subrectangular trough. A decayed wooden plank was exposed at the base of the second trough, together with nine wooden posts or stakes that supported additional planks on the inside. Four hazelnut shells were recovered from the fill and a base sherd of a late Neolithic–early Bronze Age pottery vessel was recovered from the secondary fill of the oval pit. The site has been dated as ranging from the late Neolithic to the middle Bronze Age.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
