County: Waterford Site name: GRACEDIEU WEST (1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E0588
Author: Ian Russell, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 657296m, N 613399m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.269297, -7.160526
The remains of a large burnt mound were exposed at Gracedieu West 1. It was roughly oval in shape and measured 33m in length, 13m in width and 1m in thickness and consisted of a black gravelly clay containing frequent inclusions of angular stone and occasional hazelnut fragments.
This lay above a number of small oval-shaped pits and one rectangular wooden trough. This trough measured 2.2m in length, 1.65m in width and 0.9m in depth. It was constructed from two side planks and five base planks and had been filled with a dark-brown/black silty clay containing much heat-shattered angular stone and some charcoal.
A second, earlier, burnt mound was also exposed to the north following the excavation of the first large mound. It was oval in shape and measured 2.4m by 1.9m and 0.12m in thickness and consisted of a black clay containing some angular stones and charcoal flecks. It lay beside a roughly oval-shaped pit to the north-east, measuring 2.18m by 2.6m and 0.6m in depth, which may have been a clay-lined trough. It was associated with a curving narrow cut feature, which may have acted as some form of overflow. It measured 2m in width and 0.3m in depth and had been cut into the light-grey natural clay and stone. It may have linked into a small stream that lay adjacent to the site to the west.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
