2004:1886 - Commons of Lloyd, Kells, Meath

Monitoring of the soil strip in advance of a proposed development, the construction of two large industrial buildings, in Kells Industrial Estate in the townland of Commons of Lloyd was carried out between 21 October and 5 November 2004. Monitoring was carried out under an extension to a licence previously issued to Brian Shanahan for an earlier phase of works at the same location (01E1045).

Topsoil was stripped using a mechanical digger equipped with a 2m wide toothless ditching bucket. Two sub-rectangular separate areas were opened, each measuring 60m east-west by 25m. A small number of features of potential archaeological significance were investigated and resolved as non-archaeological.

A large deposit of dumped material containing 19^th-century ceramics and glass was sampled. A total of 74 clay pipe bowls and 19 fragments of cast glass bottles were examined from within. Sixty-one clay pipe bowls are decorated with a cartouche of a crown above an ‘L’ set inside a circle. Five are decorated with a cartouche of an oval stamp with the inscription “Connor Drogheda” circling a harp. A single bowl was recovered with a cartouche marked “Prosperity to Ireland”. Seven bowl fragments were undecorated. The material presumably originated from the use of the site as a racecourse in the late 19th and early 20th century; the racecourse is depicted on the 2nd and 3rd Edition (1912) OS maps. The racecourse had two meetings a year and continued in use up to 1927 (Judge 1993, 258).

Reference:

Judge, L. 1993. The Story of Kells.  Kells

, Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd., Unit 4, Dundrum Business Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14.