County: Meath Site name: TESTING AREA 16, ARDSALLAGH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0420
Author: Stephen J. Linnane, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd, Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth.
Site type: Prehistoric house and cremation pits
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 689092m, N 762995m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.609210, -6.653672
An assessment was carried out in advance of the planned M3 Clonee-North of Kells PPP scheme, Co. Meath, on the Dunshaughlin-Navan section (Contract 2), between February and June 2004. This section of the scheme is c. 15.5km long from the townland of Roestown, north-west of Dunshaughlin, to the townland of Ardsallagh, south-west of Navan town. The EIS recommended testing any known or possible sites identified and Meath County Council further proposed to test the whole of the remainder of the route. For the purposes of testing, this section was divided into 26 testing areas. The assessment methodology generally consisted of mechanically excavating 2m-wide test-trenches along the centre-line and perpendicular to the centre-line to the edge of the land-take every 20m. The work was carried out on behalf of Meath County Council, the National Roads Design Office and the National Roads Authority.
Testing Area 16 is located in the townland of Ardsallagh, between Chainages 33600 and 34500. Within this area only one field was available for testing, due to forestation of the rest; 2729m2 of the total 24,280m2 available was test-trenched, providing an assessment coverage of 11.24% (only 2.7% of the total area to be tested, 100,816m2).
Testing along this section of the proposed route of the new motorway produced only one site. It was situated to the north-west of the River Boyne crossing and was designated Ardsallagh 2.
A series of features were noted as being archaeologically significant, including two cremation pits, a circular ditch and related features. The circular ditch had an external diameter of c. 8m, was c. 0.8m wide and c. 0.3m deep and has tentatively been identified as a house site. Associated features included three possible post-holes and a small area of metalling that might have indicated the location of an entrance. No finds were discovered that could assist in dating these features. It has been suggested that they could originate from the Bronze Age, when cremation was the preferred form of burial and circular houses were the norm.
