County: Meath Site name: TRIM: Townparks North and South
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0262
Author: Rosanne Meenan
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 680233m, N 756821m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.555174, -6.789098
It was proposed to build a pedestrian bridge across the River Boyne at a point linking Trim Castle and the Yellow Steeple. The bridge was built on two foundation pads, one on either side of the river. The development site lies within the zone of archaeological potential for Trim. On the south side of the river the foundation pad lies approximately 50m from the nearest point in the curtain wall of Trim Castle (SMR 36:25). On the north side of the river the foundation pad lies some 600m from the tower-house known as Talbot Castle (SMR 36:22). Nagle’s Castle (tower-house, SMR 36:20) and the Yellow Tower of St Mary’s Abbey (SMR 36:21) stand further to the north. The riverbed was subjected to dredging in the 1970s as part of the Boyne drainage. It is possible that a high bank along the north edge of the river was formed by the deposition of material from dredging. An assessment, including test-trenching, was requested by Dúchas. Four test-trenches, two on each riverbank, were excavated.
Trenches 1 and 2, on the south side of the river, revealed evidence for dumping in the 19th and 20th centuries. In Trench 1 a layer of coarse sand was exposed underlying the dumped material. This layer, which produced fragments of animal bone and two sherds of 13th-century Dublin-type medieval pottery, was exposed at 1.6m below the present surface level.
Trenches 3 and 4 on the north bank of the river exposed deposits of sticky clay and stone; these were interpreted as upcast from the 1970s dredging of the Boyne. There are mounds of this material along the north bank of the river here. A piece of floor tile was recovered from one of the concentrations of stone exposed at a higher level in the fill. This is of the line-impressed type, popular in the 14th century and continuing in fashion until the early 16th century. It is likely that the tile derived from St Mary’s Abbey to the north.
A very small number of 19th/20th-century potsherds were also recovered from this trench.
Alan Hayden returned at a later date to the south bank of the river to excavate the material that produced medieval pottery (see No. 1071, Excavations 2001).
Roestown, Drumree, Co. Meath
