County: Meath Site name: GORMANSTOWN AGI
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0121
Author: Redmond Tobin, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Hearth
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 716215m, N 766768m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.637790, -6.242594
This licence covered the monitoring of topsoil removal from the site of the above-ground installation (AGI) at Gormanston, Co. Meath. The AGI, once completed, will regulate the flow and pressure of natural gas coming ashore at Gormanston from the second gas interconnector from Scotland. It will control the gas pressure as the interconnector links with the Pipeline to the West and the Bord Gáis Éireann national system. The AGI is in open agricultural land on the coastal plain at Gormanston, west of the railway station and north-west of a passage tomb site, SMR 28:20.
The area monitored covered the full extent of the AGI development, comprising 1.46ha, and c. 4500m3 of topsoil was moved.
Monitoring of this site revealed very little. The western part of the site produced a significant assemblage of lithics that included mainly struck flakes and debitage. It also produced one core and a fine example of a plano-convex ‘slug’ knife. This area was closely monitored, as the pipeline entered and exited the AGI along this side. No structural material was uncovered at this location.
Monitoring revealed one area of activity, a localised patch of intense burning. After initial site clearance the feature appeared as an oval spread of blackened earth and shattered stone characteristic of the firing material associated with fulachta fiadh. In this case the stone types were the local shales and pebbles within the glacial till. This stone would not have been favourable as firing material. The feature was oval, 1.2m long and 0.95m wide, with its long axis aligned north-west/south-east. In half section the burnt material extended to 0.29–0.3m deep. The cut was lined with burnt soil and stone to a depth of 0.1m and concentric to the cut line. Encased in this was a deposit of oxidised material, which was in turn sealed by black earth and some surface clay/topsoil residue. The feature was cut into the natural shale. The shale in the immediate environs of the cut was quite dark as a result of the blackened soil being leached into the substrata. Extending out from the feature was a surface area of darkened soil and stone, which may be metalling associated with extraneous activity focused on this site. The feature appeared to have been a hearth site with a short period of occupation.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
