County: Meath Site name: CLONCOWAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0883
Author: Christine Baker, for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Burial ground, Ring-ditch and Enclosure
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 675431m, N 749339m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.488657, -6.863356
Excavation was carried out at Cloncowan, Rathmoylan, Co. Meath, as part of the Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West project (Section 1A: Ballough to Kinnegad). The site was identified by Redmond Tobin during wayleave monitoring (licence 02E0194). It lay on the east-facing slope of a north–south gravel ridge, c. 0.5km north of the fulacht fiadh excavated in the same townland (No. 1437, Excavations 2002, 02E0833). A topographical survey of the immediate environs identified a distinct platform c. 30m in diameter and 0.5m high. Excavation took place in the eastern quadrant, where 34 features were excavated by hand between 5 June and 3 July 2002.
The primary focus of the site was a penannular ditch. The western arc extended for c. 3.4m, was 1.45m wide and had a maximum depth of 0.58m. U-shaped in profile, it contained seven fills. Three pieces of chert and a piece of flint were recovered. The eastern arc extended for 10m, was 1.5–1.8m wide and had a maximum depth of 1.8m. Central to the terminus was a large boulder (0.64m in diameter). Three distinct phases were identified in this ditch, which also contained thirteen burials. The primary phase was characterised by a charcoal-rich, silty clay fill, which contained frequent burnt and unburnt bone and several artefacts, including a bone spindle-whorl. It was overlain by a number of fills, which were the result of slippage. The final phase constituted a recut of the ditch that contained the burials.
Sixteen burials were excavated, thirteen within the ditch, and the remainder in the interior of the area defined by the penannular ditch. The burials have been preliminarily identified as five adults, seven juveniles and four neonates. There was no consistency in their alignment, and eight were contained within grave-cuts often truncating the cut of the ditch. A single burial was defined by ‘ear-muff’ stones, and another by a pillow-stone.
A further eleven features were identified south-west of the penannular ditch, including pits, post-holes and gullies. They appeared to be of later date or at the earliest contemporary with the recut of the ditch. Approximately 7.5m downslope, a wide, shallow ditch was uncovered. It was 24.5m long, an average of 5.9m wide and 0.2–0.6m deep and yielded three sherds of Leinster cooking ware. As it traversed the slope, it was interpreted as having a delineating function. Almost perpendicular to this was another ditch, running downslope from the western berm. Exposed for c. 8m, it was 1.8m wide, V-shaped in profile and 0.82m deep. It may have had a drainage function.
A total of 36 artefacts were recovered from this site, most of which were in the western arc of the penannular ditch, including iron pins, a needle, chain links, a bone pin and a fragment of a bone pendant.
A definite date awaits radiocarbon determination. However, the evidence indicates the possible reuse of an earlier ring-ditch in the early medieval period and continuity of use of the site into the medieval period.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
