County: Meath Site name: COOKSTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 45:1 Licence number: 02E1689
Author: David J. O’Connor, Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Church
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 675605m, N 772772m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.699172, -6.855055
Test excavations were carried out on behalf of Meath County Council on the Ballybin Road Realignment Project at Cookstown, Co. Meath. This project involved the widening of a section of road adjacent to an old church and graveyard, which were subject to a temporary preservation order.
All vegetation covering the site to be impinged on was removed by hand from 14 to 17 October 2002. A number of features were exposed on the ground surface. These included what appeared to be the remains of a curved stone boundary wall protruding above the ground surface in a number of areas. Cartographic evidence also seemed to show the road curving away from the site, suggesting an old route for the road-crossing on the eastern side of the existing bridge. No visible remains of an earlier bridge survive; the existing bridge appears to be of 18th-century date.
A trench was opened by a mechanical digger fitted with a 2m toothless ditching bucket on 3 December 2002. Excavation was undertaken to the depth of natural, undisturbed subsoil. The only archaeological feature uncovered was a possible raised earthen bank with an external ditch, representing the boundary of the churchyard, at the northern and southern ends of the trench. The stone surviving on the surface appeared to be demolished building stone that had been shunted into the corner of the field in the recent past. It probably represents the remains of the tower associated with the church building recorded at the site. The only finds recovered were two fragments of bone, a few roof slates and some cut-stone building rubble.
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