County: Meath Site name: CHAPELBRIDE (Testing Area 3)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E1054
Author: David Bayley, Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd.
Site type: Furnace, Pit, Hearth and Burnt spread
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 670190m, N 774653m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.716834, -6.936627
An assessment was carried out in advance of the planned M3 Clonee–North of Kells PPP scheme, Co. Meath, on the Navan–Kells and N52 Kells bypass (Contract 4) between July and October 2004. This section of the scheme is c. 11km long from the townland of Ardbraccan, north of Navan, to the townland of Cakestown Glebe, north of Kells. 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 fourteen testing areas. The assessment methodology generally consisted of mechanically excavating 2mwide 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 3 is located in the townland of Chapelbride, between Chainages 81900 and 82700; 6088m2 of the total 45,273m2 within this area was test-trenched, providing a testing coverage of 13.45%.
This testing programme uncovered five areas of archaeological potential, designated Chapelbride 1–5. Chapelbride 1 consisted of a number of dispersed features, including a post-hole and a stake-hole and an oval pit that contained a small amount of slag material. This suggests that the pit may have been a bowl furnace used in the refinement of metal ores. A similar subcircular pit was identified nearby, although no layer of fire-reddened clay was evident in this pit, which indicates a less intensive heat. This may suggest that this pit was used to produce charcoal for use in a smelting pit, rather than being used as a smelting pit.
Chapelbride 2 consisted of an irregular-shaped pit. A small sherd of possible prehistoric pottery was recovered from the basal fill of the pit. No other features were identified in the 25m2 area opened around this pit.
Chapelbride 3 comprised a number of pits located around a hearth. Nothing to indicate a function or a date was recovered from any of the features.
Chapelbride 4 consisted of an elongated oval pit, a shallow curvilinear feature, on the interior of which were two shallow pits and a subrectangular pit.
Chapelbride 5 was a burnt spread containing heat-shattered stones and charcoal. It measured 6.5m east-west by 2.5m and was just 0.04m deep. Located c. 8m to the south was another spread of burnt-mound material containing heat-shattered stones and charcoal. This deposit measured 14.6m east-west by >2m by 0.18m deep. A less concentrated deposit containing occasional heat-shattered stones and charcoal was located around the edges of this spread. Two pits containing burnt material were also identified nearby.
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