County: Meath Site name: FLETCHERSTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: ME018-001 and ME018-001001 Licence number: 04E1028
Author: Deirdre Murphy, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Cross - Wayside cross and Burial
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 683115m, N 777547m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.740930, -6.740082
A report was made to the National Monuments Section of the DoEHLG regarding the removal of a cross base along the road verge at Fletcherstown, Co. Meath. The landowner, unaware of the presence of a monument, mechanically cleared the area in an attempt to tidy the road verge. In this process a cross base, mound material and human remains were disturbed and dumped in a nearby quarry.
Limited excavation was carried out at this site in order to recover any disturbed human remains that lay exposed. Human remains and animal bone from both the quarry and along the road verge were recovered. All bone has been submitted to an osteoarchaeologist for analysis. All bone was recovered from a single context: the mound material. A stony layer was interpreted as a foundation and perhaps was the location of the cross. The main part of the mound was located on the northern side of this feature and it is from this area that the vast majority of human bone was recovered. It would appear likely therefore that the burial was located within the mound on the northern side of the cross base. It is likely that the burial was disarticulated and may in fact have been reinterred beside the cross base. It is noteworthy that animal bone was also recovered from the same context.
As the archaeological brief only involved examining the disturbed soil for human bone and identifying the location of the burial, no further excavation took place. It is possible that further burials survive undetected beneath the sod and topsoil.
It is proposed to reinstate the cross base at this location.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth.
