2004:1211 - COOKSTOWN, Meath

The excavations at Sites 24 and 25 were carried out in advance of the N2 Finglas-Ashbourne road scheme on behalf of Meath County Council (see Appendix II). The site was located in the townland of Cookstown, Co. Meath, c. 1km west of Ashbourne. Site 25 was initially identified during a geophysical survey carried out in advance of the road scheme in 2002. Test excavations in 2003 confirmed the archaeological significance of Site 25, as well as the presence of a prehistoric ring-ditch to the south (Site 24). The excavations of Site 24 and Site 25 were carried out under an extension to the existing testing licence for Site 25. The excavation was carried out by a team of between 24 and 51 archaeologists between 15 January and 31 May 2004. The site, which was divided into four areas, contained material and features from the Bronze Age, Iron Age, early medieval, high medieval and modern periods. The majority of the features date from the medieval period and the site can be primarily characterised as a medieval settlement site.

The site contained 59 prehistoric features, most of which appeared to be Bronze Age in date. The majority of these consisted of shallow pits, some containing burnt bone and, occasionally, flint; a Bronze Age crouched inhumation was also excavated. An Iron Age double ring-ditch and associated pits was discovered in Area 4, 79.1m south of the prehistoric pits; this was identified as Site 24 during the initial test excavations in 2003. The area was subsequently found to contain two concentric ring-ditches, a pit between these ditches and three external surrounding pits. The diameter of the outer ditch was 15m, with the inner ditch being 6.6m in diameter and separated from the outer by c. 3.5m. The inner and outer ditches were 0.54m and 0.4m wide; at 0.27m the inner ditch was shallower than the outer ditch (at 0.54m). Unfortunately the whole complex of ring-ditches and pits was heavily truncated by ploughing. It also became apparent that a layer of natural-like material was spread over the outer ring-ditch, in some cases masking the underlying feature; it may be that this is the remains of the banks from the ditches which were subsequently ploughed out and spread over the area of the ring-ditches. Very few finds were recovered from the fills of the two ring-ditches; one sherd of a prehistoric pot and a fragment of a brown-glass bracelet were recovered from the fill of the outer ring-ditch. Another sherd of a prehistoric pot was recovered from the fill of the inner ring-ditch, as well as two pieces of flint and a cast bronze penannular ring. The fill of the ring-ditches contains charcoal and animal bone. Two charcoal samples from the inner ring-ditch provided 14C dates of 198+/-47 BC and 242+/-40 BC.

The site contained an early medieval circular enclosure or ringfort. Only the 21% of this 54m-wide enclosure that lay within the compulsory purchase order area was excavated. This portion of the enclosure consisted of a 4m-wide causeway entrance separating two curving ditches of between 3.2m and 5.5m wide; the interior of the enclosure contained nosignificant surviving internal features. An early medieval ringed pin and the ring portion of a second ringed pin were recovered from the ditch. The ditch appears to have been backfilled in the 13th or 14th century. A hearth found inside the enclosure may indicate some form of occupation within the enclosure in the 13th or 14th century, although, with no evidence for an associated structure, evidence for this is inconclusive.

A large proportion of the excavation site can be characterised as 13th-or 14th-century rural settlement. Three structures (I-III), including a forge, were constructed beside a medieval lane. Drainage appears to have been a major consideration in the medieval period, which is understandable given the impermeable nature of the clays on the site; shallow ditches or channels were dug around Structures I and III, presumably to take water away. The medieval structures were wood built, with shallow slot-trenches serving to fix them to the ground. The cut defining the limits of the medieval forge was a shallow open channel or drain measuring 8.5m by at least 5m (it was truncated by a 17th-century ditch); this appears to have kept water out of the forge area. The forge may have been covered by a lean-to roof. An earthen floor in the interior of the forge contained trodden-in charcoal, slag and sherds of medieval pottery. There was no evidence for the intense heat associated with a furnace or fire used to heat the metal. In the centre of the structure a subcircular area measuring 3m by 2.5m was found to enclose a number of post- and stake-holes. This area was defined be a shallow doughnut-shaped trough, possibly a quenching trough, with a cut 0.65m wide and 0.28m deep; the trough contained large quantities of charcoal, iron scale and slag from ironworking. Slag was also found in the drain surrounding Structure I and in the open ditch outside the structure. The trough surrounded a raised area with four large post-holes that appear to have acted as supports for a bench, or possibly a raised hearth. This bench was replaced with a less sturdy structure supported on stakes during a more domestic use of the building.

Structure II was annexed to the western side of Structure I. This structure consisted of an earth-fast building measuring 9.5m by 3.5m, with a south-facing entrance c. 1.1m wide. The building was wooden and set into narrow, shallow slot-trenches; an internal subdivision wall was also set in a slot-trench. The foundation trenches were 0.5-0.6m wide and 0.22-0.3m deep and may have contained split-plank walls. The exit was flanked by a series of four post-holes that may have acted as a windbreak. The building was quite narrow and it would appear that any roof over the structure was carried out on the building's walls; the building was open to the east, where it abutted the forge in Structure I. Structures II and III were separated by a shallow ditch measuring 2.1m wide and 0.6m deep.

Structure III, on the western side of this ditch, was also a medieval building, although again it was severely truncated by the modern avenue to the north. The remains of the structure measured c. 5m by 5m. The cut for the foundations of Structure III was 0.57-0.7m wide and 0.2-0.4m deep. The walls of the structure were probably made of planks set upright in the slot-trench. Pack stones were set around the planks to hold them in place. A series of eighteen stake-holes in a roughly square outline inside the structure may be the remains of a pen or a bench.

The medieval drainage ditches also enclosed an area where intense garden cultivation was carried out. This area of the site appears to have been deliberately raised, using imported soil, to allow drier conditions for cultivation. A concentration of shallow channels or furrows arranged in a crosshatch pattern form the remains of intense cultivation or gardening. The fills of these channels were generally silty and rich in charcoal and contained sherds of 13th-14th-century medieval pottery and small fragments of bone, probably the remains of refuse used as manure. These channels acted as drains, with the cultivation carried out on the raised drier areas in between. Cultivation in this area of the site continued perhaps into the early modern period; the gardens became redundant after the enclosing ditches were backfilled.

The medieval ditches gradually filled in and the houses were abandoned in the 14th century. A number of ditches were dug on the site in the late 16th and 17th centuries; most of the finds from this period consisted of imported pottery from the Staffordshire region and stone wares from Germany. Historical documents from the 17th century indicate the presence of a farmstead close to the excavated area, possibly under the modern farmhouse adjacent to the site. In the 18th and 19th centuries the remains of the medieval ditches were completely backfilled and the fields, as they appear today, took shape.

At some point in the late 18th or early 19th century a stone-walled cabin (Structure V) was built inside a ditch flanking the north side of the lane. This cabin consisted of a single-roomed stone structure. It measured 7.3m by 4.1m externally and appears to have been built with three low walls of stone c. 0.5m thick: two short walls, measuring 2.36-2.65m long and 0.48-0.85m high, following the contours of the profile of the ditch, and a long wall along the brow of the ditch, measuring 7.1m long and a maximum of 0.3m high. The inside of the structure was deepened with some of the cast-out material banked up against the outside of the walls for extra support or insulation. A gap in the short western wall at the lowest point of the ditch served as an entrance. Presumably the roof was supported on the northern side of the ditch and leaned across to the long wall of the structure. The beaten earth floor within the structure contained a number of hearths set in scooped-out hollows both in the middle of the cabin and against one of the walls. A shallow drain ran down along the middle of the cabin from the entrance. The demolition phase and backfill material in the cabin contained modern ceramics, glass and clay-pipe fragments. It would appear that this structure was home to a poor cottier's family some time in the 18th or early 19th century; the cabin was only occupied for a short period of time - perhaps just one season. Some time later - possibly only a matter of months after it was constructed - the walls were thrown down into the interior of the cabin and it was filled in with soil during the construction of a substantial new field boundary bank. The small field to the immediate north of the cabin revealed a large number of modern furrows and drainage gullies, possibly associated with the cultivation of potatoes.

A total of 3770 artefacts were recovered during the course of the excavation; these consisted of pottery (82%), metal and glass (6%), flint and clay pipe (4%), chert, coarse stone, worked bone and human bone (less than 1%). The majority of the finds were medieval (69%), followed by modern finds (24%), prehistoric finds (4%) and finds of unknown date (3%). A comprehensive sampling strategy recovered samples of soil (32931), animal bone (291 bags) and slag (43 bags) as well as small amounts of mollusc shells, burnt bone, charcoal and wood. Post-excavation work on this project is ongoing.