2005:AD13 - MERRYWELL 1, MERRYWELL, Meath

The site at Merrywell 1 is located west of Dunshaughlin and south-west of Drumree village on the Batterstown–Trim road and within Contract 1 (Dunboyne to Dunshaughlin) of the proposed M3 Clonee to North of Kells motorway. It was initially identified, during a geophysical survey undertaken by Bartlett-Clark Consultancy in 2002, as a possible rectangular enclosure with adjacent linear features. In 2004, a programme of centre-line testing undertaken by Tara O’Neill on behalf of Meath County Council recorded two ditches and a spread of medieval date (Excavations 2004, No. 1288, 04E0483).
Merrywell 1 was excavated from 22 August to 11 October 2005. Excavation revealed the presence of four ditches, which could be dated to the 13th and 14th centuries by their association with a range of medieval, Dublin-type, ceramic wares. Two of the ditches were located at the east of the site. They were parallel, aligned north-west/south-east and located 8.5m apart. Both ditches were 100m long, 1m wide and 0.3–0.7m deep and extended beyond the northern and south-eastern site boundaries. The eastern ditch had a later recut. They may represent the remains of a ridge-and-furrow cultivation system, although the absence of similar features on either side suggests otherwise.
In the north-west of the site, the excavation of a substantial well (4m by 2.5m by 1.6m deep) produced numerous sherds of Dublin-type wares in association with a turned wooden (ash) bowl and other worked timbers. The overflow from the well was carried off in a south-south-east direction by another medieval ditch that extended beyond the southern site boundary. It cut the final, possibly medieval, ditch towards the south of the site.
The remaining features included two medieval pits, a medieval curvilinear drainage feature, a pit containing burnt-mound material, three undated ditches and three post-medieval ditches. Two of the post-medieval ditches formed the rectangular enclosure recorded in the geophysical survey.