County: Meath Site name: COOKSLAND
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0641
Author: Christine Baker, for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 695555m, N 753288m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.520867, -6.559013
Excavation was carried out at Cooksland, Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath, as part of the Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West project (Section 1A: Ballough to Kinnegad). The site was revealed as a localised spread of darkened soil and heat-shattered stone during wayleave monitoring by Redmond Tobin (licence 02E0194). A total of 24 features were recorded in an area measuring 22m north–south by 15m, which were excavated by hand from 15 to 24 June 2002.
They included a series of pits and deposits of fulacht material truncated by agricultural activity. The former comprised five intercutting pits and a single trough. The trough was subrectangular, measuring 1.5m east–west by 0.9m, and had a maximum depth of 0.65m. It contained compact, grey/black, silty clay with frequent charcoal inclusions. There were three deposits of fulacht material: F1 (3.6m by 2.6m), c. 0.5m south-west of the pit series, and F12 (2.97m by 1.62m) and F13 (1.25m by 1.15m), c. 4.5m north-west. They were irregular cuts filled with grey marl and overlain by charcoal-rich friable clay with frequent heat-shattered stone. In addition, ten stake-holes (0.07m in average diameter) were excavated. They appeared to arc from F1 northward to F12.
A flint flake and a single piece of chert were recovered from the site but were not diagnostic. Definite dating for the site will have to await radiocarbon determinations.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
