2004:1333 - RAYNESTOWN (Testing Area 11), Meath

An assessment was carried out in advance of the planned M3 Clonee–North of Kells PPP scheme, Co. Meath, on the Clonee–Dunshaughlin section (Contract 1) between February and June 2004. This section of the scheme consists of c. 14.2km of motorway and a further c. 14km of link roads and additional side roads. 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 a 2m-wide test-trench along the centre-line, with perpendicular trenches extending 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.

A total of 91 trenches were excavated in Testing Area 11 within Raynestown townland. The assessment was carried out on 7–15 April 2004. Two areas of archaeological significance were identified that will be impacted upon by the proposed development. These have been designated as Raynestown 1 and Raynestown 2. Raynestown 1 comprised a subcircular Bronze Age enclosure. It measured c. 17m in internal diameter, though the full extent was not exposed as it lay partially within the landowner’s garden. The enclosing element was a ditch that measured 1.9–2.8m in width and 0.95–1.2m in depth. The ditch fills contained heat-shattered stone, large quantities of animal bone and a lot of charcoal. All three excavated sections produced sherds of Bronze Age pottery. Two curvilinear features noted in a test-trench running across the centre of the enclosure appear to be arcs of a single smaller enclosure located centrally within the main one.

Raynestown 2 comprised two pits located c. 400m to the north of Raynestown 1. One pit measured 0.8m by 0.75m by 0.08m deep; its fill was a black silty sand with frequent charcoal fragments and heat-shattered stone. The other was a shallow spread of dark-grey silty sand, with some small stones located immediately west of the pit; it measured c. 0.45m in diameter and was 0.03m deep.