County: Meath Site name: NINCH, Laytown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 28:25 Licence number: 01E0723
Author: John O’Connor, for ADS Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 716437m, N 771543m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.680630, -6.237450
Monitoring for Phase 3 of a housing development at Ninch, Laytown, Co. Meath, was carried out from 3 December 2001 to 15 January 2002. The housing development was being constructed in a number of phases on a large site between the Dublin–Belfast railway line and the Irish Sea. Testing carried out between April and September 2000 by James Eogan and Martin Reid resulted in a recommendation that all groundworks associated with the development be monitored (Excavations 2000, No. 760, 99E0501). Excavations were being carried out by Cia McConway in an area to the east of Phase 3 (No. 1489, Excavations 2002) at the time of writing.
Topsoil was stripped using machines fitted with toothless grading buckets from the level of topsoil down to the top of archaeological features or to undisturbed subsoil. The stratigraphy was uniform across the area. Topsoil was a loose, mid-brown, clayey silt, c. 0.15–0.6m deep. The topsoil directly overlay the natural subsoil, an orange/brown clay with a moderate amount of charcoal inclusions. Nine possible archaeological features were exposed in four distinct areas of the site.
Most of these features were circular or subcircular cuts, which were cleaned and recorded but not excavated. Two of the features were small spreads of burnt stone, which may be connected, possibly parts of a fulacht fiadh. Further investigations of these features are to be carried out under a separate excavation licence. Some or all of these features may be associated with the large complex to the east of Phase 3. However, it is also possible that some of the features are the result of modern field clearance or related to recent farming activity in the field.
2 Walnut Rise, Courtlands, Dublin 9
