County: Westmeath Site name: DALYSTOWN (BGE 1B/68/1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0679
Author: Bernice Molloy, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Cremation pit and Barrow - ring-barrow
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 641027m, N 743179m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.437112, -7.382539
This site was part of a complex of sites along a 500m stretch of the pipeline corridor (including Nos 1855, 1856 and 1857, Excavations 2002). It lay on the slight south-facing slope of a low-lying gravel ridge, which sloped to the east and west. There was good drainage at this location, whereas the low-lying areas to the east and west were liable to flooding.
Over two-thirds of a ring-ditch was excavated; the remainder of the site extended beyond the pipeline corridor and the southern limit of excavation. The ditch enclosed an area measuring c. 11.25m (east–west) by 9.2m. The remains of a mound sealed a number of pits containing fragments of cremated bone. The ring-ditch was on average 1.55m wide and 0.72m deep.
A cluster of cremation pits was excavated to the east of the ring-ditch, yielding a high concentration of cremated bone and charcoal. One of these pits had evidence of in situ burning. There was also a series of pits to the north and north-east of the ring-ditch, which formed an arcing pattern around the ditch. The site yielded several fragments of Bronze Age pottery.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
