County: Meath Site name: TRIM: Market Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: ME036-048038 Licence number: 05E0744
Author: Carmel Duffy
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 656738m, N 780116m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.767555, -7.139380
Test-trenching was carried out, in July 2005, before the development of the site, on three adjacent sites. Six trenches were opened.
Trenches 1 and 2 were on the westernmost site. The top three horizons in Trench 1 contained modern material. Horizon 4 was red/brown silty clay with occasional sherds of medieval pottery. Trench 2 contained a similar layer to Horizon 4, Trench 1, at c. 2m below the surface. It was a grey clay matrix, with frequent stones and inclusions of medieval pottery and oyster shell.
Trench 3 was on the central site. It contained dark-brown silt with occasional medieval pottery; beneath this was grey/brown clay with occasional medieval pottery and animal bone.
Trenches 4–6 were on the easternmost site, which was a gasworks in the early modern period. The trenches contained a lot of industrial waste from this period: clinker, lime, ash, brick, coal-tar, iron fragments, etc. Beneath this in Trench 4 was dark-brown silty clay, with occasional charcoal lumps, animal bone and medieval pottery. No medieval features came to light.
Umberstown Great, Summerhill, Co. Meath
