County: Meath Site name: DUNBOYNE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E1112
Author: David J. O'Connor, CRDS Ltd.
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 701309m, N 742099m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.419271, -6.475887
Monitoring of a proposed development site 600m north of Dunboyne revealed a substantial D-shaped enclosure. Approximately half of the monument lay outside the development site.
Monitoring of initial groundworks commenced in August 2003 when mechanical diggers using toothless ditching buckets started to remove topsoil from the site. Works were halted soon after commencing, however, when what appeared to be the remains of a backfilled ditch were uncovered. The machines were then used to strip back the topsoil to determine the extent and position of the ditch. All further work on-site was halted. Two small sections were subsequently excavated through the ditch.
The cut for the ditch was V-shaped, with steep sides. It was over 2.75m wide and survived to a depth 1.55m below the surface (1.3m cut into subsoil). Its numerous fills were difficult to differentiate. In general, the fill consisted of an initial hard compacted mixed grey/brown deposit with lots of small stone and shell. After 0.2m, the fill got considerably looser, with higher shell content.
Excavation was subsequently undertaken of the site by Finola O'Carroll (No. 1390, Excavations 2003).
Unit 4, Dundrum Business Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14.
