County: Kildare Site name: BOYCETOWN AND PITCHFORDSTOWN (Site AE28)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0145
Author: Dermot Nelis, IAC Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 687145m, N 739992m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.402871, -6.689487
Testing was carried out as part of the Kinnegad–Enfield–Kilcock (Contract 3) Bypass. The overall scheme (Contracts 1–3) involves the excavation of c. 35km of motorway, commencing to the south-west of Kinnegad in County Westmeath and continuing eastward through counties Meath and Kildare, terminating at the western end of the existing M4 motorway at Kilcock. Contract 3 covers the route from Kilcock to the east of Enfield (c. 11km).
Site AE28 was listed as a series of cultivation ridges. Three linear and 22 offset trenches were excavated. Testing revealed topsoil sealing geologically deposited strata across the whole site. Topsoil was on average 0.4m deep over natural, dark brown, compact clay. The area was slightly more waterlogged at the eastern end. An area of modern quarrying measuring c. 10m east–west was recorded at the western end of the site. A number of modern field drains were recorded in this general area.
Testing of the cultivation ridges failed to reveal any archaeological remains. Ploughmarks associated with the ridge and furrow did not cut natural, suggesting only shallow activity in this area. The presence of modern pottery sealed by cultivation ridges at AE29, 50m south of AE28, suggests that these features are modern and therefore of no archaeological significance.
This project was funded by Westmeath County Council.
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