County: Meath Site name: RATH HILL (1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A017/018, E3040
Author: Stuart D. Elder, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Structure and Field system
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 696932m, N 750519m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.495745, -6.539115
This site was located within Contract 1 (Dunboyne to Dunshaughlin) of the proposed M3 Clonee to north of Kells motorway and was identified during advance testing by Eamonn Cotter between March and April 2004 (Excavations 2004, No. 1320, 04E0475). Full resolution occurred between September and November 2006 and the site was divided into two areas.
Area A
A circular, stone-built structure was situated to the west of three ditches. It comprised a clay-bonded setting of roughly-hewn, random-coursed limestone blocks, faced internally and externally, with a core of smaller blocks and rubble. It survived in places to three courses, including the basal course, but was heavily robbed out on the south and south-west sides. It was reasonably well constructed, with predominantly large blocks laid externally, and it appears to have had an external, aggregate-rich render. There was no evidence for any internal surface treatment. A single entrance survived to the north-north-west, but there appears to have been an opposing entrance, which was later blocked up. This was evidenced by a comparatively random placing of stones, not in keeping with the character of the rest of the stonework. A north-east/south-west metalled pathway ran to the north of the structure. A north-east/south-west furrow and two small spreads of charcoal-rich material overlying a patch of metalling were also observed to the north of the structure.
Area B
One of the ditches, which began in Area A, extended into Area B and contained one intact and one semi-intact articulated horse skeleton. Various other linear features, including drains and ditches, were identified. A large deep pit, probably the result of quarrying, was revealed.
Provisional dating through artefacts suggests a 16th/17th-century date for the site, which is tentatively interpreted as a stone tower windmill with an associated field system.
21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda
