County: Meath Site name: DUNBOYNE 3, DUNBOYNE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A017/013
Author: Rob O’Hara, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd, 21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda.
Site type: Prehistoric pit
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 701982m, N 743369m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.430554, -6.465341
Excavation in advance of the M3 Clonee to North of Kells motorway (Contract 1: Dunboyne to Dunshaughlin) revealed a prehistoric site comprising a kidney-shaped pit with associated shallow posts. Tested in 2004 (Excavations 2004, No. 1232, 04E0490), the site was excavated in August 2005. The pit contained a number of sherds of Late Neolithic and Beaker pottery, with flint and chert flakes and debitage. Also present in significant quantities were charcoal and burnt/cremated bone. Analysis of the bone is being undertaken to determine whether it is human or animal. A flint knife was recovered from this feature during testing, along with some sherds of Beaker pottery. Perhaps significantly, the bone was mostly confined to the eastern end of the pit. The site may have some connection to other Bronze Age sites excavated in advance of the planned M3, including possible Bronze Age cremation pits (Dunboyne 1, No. AD8 above, A017/007) and settlement (Dunboyne 2, No. AD9 above, A017/012) and a number of disturbed fulachta fiadh around the nearby Tolka River at Bracetown (No. AD4 above, A017/006) and Bennetstown (A017/004).
The features at Dunboyne 3 were situated next to the CPO line. Related features may exist in the vicinity; however, the local landscape has been seriously altered by modern quarrying and their identification may prove problematic.
