County: Meath Site name: NINCH, Laytown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 28:25 Licence number: 01E0723 ext.
Author: John O’Connor, for ADS Ltd.
Site type: Burnt spread, Enclosure, Pit, Ring-ditch and Cremation pit
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 716437m, N 771543m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.680630, -6.237450
Further monitoring of topsoil-stripping at a housing development at Ninch, Laytown, Co. Meath, was carried out between August and October 2002. This site, known as Phase B, is north of the area monitored in January 2002 (No. 1490, Excavations 2002). Topsoil was stripped by mechanical excavators fitted with toothless buckets. The topsoil was a mid-grey/brown silty clay, 0.15–0.4m deep. It lay directly over glacially derived subsoil that varied greatly from yellow sandy clays to light brown, sticky clays and loose gravels.
Fourteen areas of archaeology were uncovered (Areas A–N). Most consisted of between one and eight features, but the two main areas (Areas M and N), along the railway track, contained around 67 features between them. The features uncovered were mainly charcoal spreads, areas of fire-reddened clay, linear features, numerous pits, a ring-ditch, a semi-ring-ditch and evidence of a cremation burial. Three patinated, convex flint scrapers were recovered from the topsoil in Area N. Further investigation of these features is to be carried out under a separate licence. It is possible that some of these features are the result of relatively recent, or indeed modern, agricultural activity.
2 Walnut Rise, Courtlands, Dublin 9
