County: Meath Site name: RATHCORE/JORDANSTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 48:3, 48:4, 48:5 Licence number: 02E0228
Author: Richard Clutterbuck, Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 678083m, N 743683m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.437454, -6.824817
Monitoring was carried out of the development of an eighteen-hole golf-course with up to seven lakes, bunkers, teeing areas and greens in the townlands of Rathcore and Jordanstown, in south County Meath. The site contains three ponds and several furze-covered natural hillocks, as well as three recorded and one potential archaeological site.
Soil-stripping was carried out by a digger fitted with a 2m-wide toothless bucket, after the sod had been broken with a power harrow. Monitoring took place over eight days between 5 March and 5 April. Soil-stripping was carried out over the greens and tees area, as well as three lake areas. The field boundary incorporating the potential archaeological site was removed by hand, and the ditch was filled in.
One archaeological site was discovered: a burnt mound (NGR 277530 244588) on Green 3. It appeared as an area of dark to black soil with inclusions of sandstone and charcoal, measuring 5m north–south by 8.5m; only part of the site was uncovered, and a further area, measuring c. 20m in diameter, could be seen as a slight raised feature immediately adjacent to the proposed green. The area is on low-lying ground, directly south-east of SMR 48:5, a motte, on the margin of marshy ground; it appeared to be a burnt mound or fulacht fiadh. A 20m cordon was placed around the site, and the burnt area was re-covered with soil. The design of the green was altered to avoid the site; further soil-stripping in the area surrounding the site was monitored, but no further archaeological features were discovered.
Monitoring has been completed for the construction of the greens and the tees and lake areas; monitoring of groundworks for the clubhouse and associated services and carparks are to be carried out in April 2003.
Unit 4, Dundrum Business Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14
