2002:1516 - RATOATH, Meath

Monitoring of groundworks was required as the development is within the zone of archaeological potential reflecting medieval occupation within the town of Ratoath. Groundworks consisted of the excavation of trenches for the insertion of services, including telecom ducts, street-lighting ducts and drainage pipes. Trenches were generally excavated to 0.4–1.2m below the modern ground level. Work extended north along Main Street and along the Kentstown Road on either side of the junction. Work also took place along a pathway close to the river and to the rear (east) of the motte.

Extensive modern disturbance was evident in most trenches, including earlier services, pits and gullies, and rubble spreads. The construction of the modern road surface on Main Street appeared to have largely removed evidence of earlier activity. Nonetheless, several cut features of medieval date were exposed. A cesspit revealed on Main Street was excavated to a depth of 2m, at which point a sherd of Leinster cooking ware was recovered and the pit became waterlogged. Two further medieval features were exposed beside the northern boundary wall of the Roman Catholic church. A U-shaped gully or shallow pit, 1.15m wide and 0.19m deep, contained a single sherd of green-glazed local ware. A spread of clay or possible ditch fill, 4.4m wide and containing two sherds of Leinster cooking ware, was exposed only in plan, as groundworks did not extend beyond that depth.

Groundworks along the Kentstown Road, which exits the town to the north-west, exposed a substantial topsoil horizon beneath the road surface, associated with gardens that were truncated by the insertion of the toll road in the late 18th century. The medieval town boundary ditch was exposed in plan at 1m below the surface of the Kentstown Road. No medieval artefacts were recovered, but the ditch can be dated based on its proximity to the known north-western boundary of the town. It appeared as a 3m-wide band of highly compact, grey clay with a green hue, containing some small pieces of animal bone. The adjacent subsoil was stonier but otherwise quite similar. No ditch cut was visible at a higher level in the section, and no further works were undertaken below this level.

Ceramics recovered during the monitoring included medieval and post-medieval wares. Medieval wares consisted of Leinster cooking ware and glazed local wares of 13th–14th-century date, and 17th-century wares were represented by black-/ green-glazed coal-measure clay ware. Manganese mottled ware of 18th-century date was recovered from the fossilised garden-soil layer covered by the late 18th-century toll road. Late 18th- and 19th-century wares included creamwares, pearlwares and blackwares.

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