County: Westmeath Site name: ENNISCOFFEY/CARAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0902
Author: Elizabeth Connolly, for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 650762m, N 747234m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.472699, -7.235381
Monitoring of topsoil-stripping along the corridor of Section 1B of the Pipeline to the West revealed a burnt mound, in low-lying, boggy ground, c. 18m east of a field drain. The site was excavated in June 2002.
The mound consisted mainly of silty, peaty clay, fire-cracked sandstones and infrequent charcoal. Its full extent was not revealed, as part of it was underneath a haul road, which, in this area of the pipeline, did not require topsoil-stripping. The part of the mound that was revealed measured c. 9m by 8m and was 0.3m deep. The mound overlay a loose, dark brown, woody peat with an average depth of 0.2m. Some animal bone was recovered from this deposit. Beneath this was a grey natural subsoil that was undulating and pitted.
Cut into the peaty layer and beneath the burnt mound were the wooden remains of a possible trough (maximum dimensions 1.5m north–south by 1.3m). This feature was constructed of two layers of wooden planks, all oriented north–south. The three lower planks were laid in a slight dip in the natural subsoil and may have been arranged thus to make an even base on which to lie the four upper planks. A thin ribbon of wood, less than 40mm, high delimited a roughly rectangular area around three of the upper planks, and a similar fragment of vertical wood lay along the western edge of the fourth. One stake was recorded, at the eastern edge of the feature. The timbers was very degraded, and no toolmarks were evident. The relationship between the ribbons of wood and the more substantial horizontal timbers was unclear, as their condition was especially poor at their points of contact.
An irregularly shaped deposit of black, very charcoal-rich, silty clay was recorded c. 2m north-east of the wooden feature. This deposit measured 2.4m north–south by 1.8m and was 50mm deep.
The remains of a shallow burnt spread were recorded c. 16m west of the original mound. This feature was truncated by a modern field drain. It measured 5m east–west by 3m and was 0.12m deep.
Specialist analysis is continuing.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
