County: Kildare Site name: PITCHFORDSTOWN (Site AE30)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0147
Author: Dermot Nelis, IAC Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 687154m, N 739708m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.400318, -6.689430
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 AE30 was listed as a series of cultivation ridges. Testing revealed a spread of burnt stone in the north-western corner of Site AE30, c. 10m from the western field boundary and 25m from the existing motorway fence. It lay c. 0.3–0.4m below present ground level. This feature was interpreted as the remains of a fulacht fiadh at the testing stage, but a subsequent excavation (No. 975, Excavations 2002, 02E0998) carried out by Tim Coughlan revealed it to be the remains of a burnt-out tree stump associated with modern farming practices.
Three centre-line and 33 offset trenches were excavated. Testing revealed topsoil, on average 0.4m deep, sealing geologically deposited strata across the whole site. Natural was a compact, sticky, mid- to dark brown clay.
Testing of the cultivation ridges failed to reveal any associated archaeological remains. Ploughmarks associated with the ridge and furrow did not cut the natural, suggesting only shallow activity in this area. The presence of modern pottery associated with cultivation ridges immediately to the west of Site AE30 (at Site AE29) suggests that these features are related and therefore of no archaeological significance.
This project was funded by Westmeath County Council.
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