County: Meath Site name: ENFIELD: Possackstown, Rathcore
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1526
Author: Brian Shanahan, for Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Field system
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 677634m, N 741324m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.416330, -6.832153
An assessment was undertaken before a proposed development. The site was just to the north of Enfield village and consisted of two fields in pasture separated by a wire fence, covering an area of 8.64ha. It was bounded to the north-west by the railway line, which follows the line of the Royal Canal. The Down Survey and the Civil Survey indicate that Possackstown was divided into two chief holdings in the mid-17th century. The sites of Possackstown Castle and a separate hamlet indicated on the Down Survey map of Rathcore parish are separated from the development by the Royal Canal, which had reached Enfield by 1799.
Ten parallel linear trenches were excavated by machine across the length of the site. Generalised furrowing was noted across the field. An isolated fire-spot was exposed at the southern end of the field, which measured 0.4m in diameter and consisted of a charcoal-rich clay layer (0.1m thick) sitting in a burnt clay depression. Three ditches were exposed, revealing 19th-century subdivisions of the present field system. All were aligned with the existing field boundaries and the canal, indicating a post-1800 date. The most substantial was indicated on the first-edition (1840) OS 6-inch map. It ran north-west/south-east and consisted of a double ditch that effectively bisected the site. The double ditch was 3.9m wide by 0.8m deep and 2.4m wide by 0.7m deep. There was a 3m-wide interval, which presumably once supported an earthen bank. The other two ditches ran at a right angle to the first boundary and parallel to the northern and southern site boundaries. Both had fills containing heavily corroded barbed wire. The first ran through the middle of the field and was 1.8m wide and 0.54m deep. The second was offset 5m from the southern site boundary, a stream, and was 1m wide and 0.5m deep.
Ceramics in the topsoil horizon were rare. The assemblage was noted to include blackware, pearlware, a clay-pipe stem and green glass, indicating a broad late 18th- to 19th-century date.
Unit 4, Dundrum Business Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14
