County: Meath Site name: CLONYMEATH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0689
Author: Emmet Byrnes, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 685693m, N 751047m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.502438, -6.708300
Excavation was carried out on a site at Clonymeath, Co. Meath, as part of the Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West project (Section 1A: Ballough to Kinnegad). The site was revealed during monitoring of topsoil-stripping and was recorded as a thin, vestigial spread of pre-heated stone and burnt soil, measuring 16m (east–west) by 10m. The burnt mound proper survived intact only in section at the southern edge of the wayleave, where it was seen to have been c. 0.4m high originally. It extended intact southward from the edge of the wayleave for a further 4m. A possible trough was noted at the eastern side of the spread.
The excavation, which took place between 4 June and 16 July 2002, uncovered a number of distinct, oval and subrectangular features underlying the vestigial spread of fragmentary burnt stone and charcoal. These included two large, oval, pit-like troughs, two subrectangular troughs, two small pits and a large oval ‘sump’ or pit, as well as four natural peat-filled depressions or root bowls.
The two subrectangular troughs were in the centre of the area originally covered by the burnt-mound material. One measured 2.1m (east–west) by 0.8m by 0.4m deep, and the other 2.2m (east–west) by 1.44m by 0.42m deep. The sides of both troughs retained the negative impressions of a lining of longitudinal timbers or planks.
A large, irregular, oval pit adjacent to one of the troughs was interpreted as a sump. It measured 4.79m (north-west/south-east) by 4.04m and was 0.6m in maximum depth. It was filled with the same material as the troughs: a charcoal-rich, mid- to dark grey/black, silty sand with burnt sandstone gravel and fragments (representing c. 40% of the volume).
There were two finds from the site. An animal rib, provisionally identified as that of a pig, was found in the sump, and a flint blade was recovered from the general spread of burnt-mound material.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
