County: Meath Site name: DONAGHMORE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E0027
Author: Rosanne Meenan, Roestown, Drumree, Co. Meath.
Site type: Pit
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 688382m, N 769788m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.670364, -6.662480
The development site lies approximately 100m south-west of the church, graveyard and round tower of Donaghmore, classified as a ‘church site’ (SMR 25:15) in the Sites and monuments record and as an ‘Early Christian Monastery’ in the Archaeological inventory of County Meath (Moore, 134). This is a national monument.
The owner wished to demolish a derelict house on the site and to construct a dwelling house to the south-west of the existing house. Four trenches tested the footprint of the proposed house and the driveway. A pit, c. 3m in diameter and 0.9m deep, was exposed in Trench 2, which tested the front wall of the proposed house. It was not possible to date this feature and its significance could not therefore be estimated. No other features were observed.
The location of the septic tank and the percolation area was also tested. Layers of redeposited boulder clay and modern rubbish were exposed here, presumably laid down in order to bring up the level of the ground close to the dwelling house.
Reference
Moore, M. 1987 Archaeological inventory of County Meath. Dublin.
