County: Meath Site name: KNOCKMARK
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0633
Author: Emmet Byrnes, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Burnt spread
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 694009m, N 752657m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.515478, -6.582503
Excavation was carried out, from 12 to 14 August 2002, on a site at Knockmark, Co. Meath, as part of the Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West project (Section 1A: Ballough to Kinnegad). The site, revealed during monitoring of topsoil-stripping, was recorded as a pair of conjoined burnt spreads. During a period of flooding, heavy machinery inadvertently traversed the site, so that by the time of excavation only the remnants of one of the conjoined burnt mounds remained. However, these were sufficient to determine the former extent of the spread and to obtain a section through it. No evidence of a trough or any associated features was found.
The burnt spread measured 5.4m (north-east/south-west) by 2m and was 0.02–0.2m deep. It was deepest on the south-west side and thinned to the north-east. It comprised a wet, grey/black, charcoal-flecked, peaty clay, with varying amounts of small, burnt or heat-cracked, angular stones (sandstone and shale). A flint knife was recovered from the surface of the larger of the two spreads at the time of monitoring.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
