County: Meath Site name: Ballybeg 1
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A029/014; E3132
Author: Patricia Lynch, Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd, 120B Greenpark Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow.
Site type: Burnt-mound activity
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 678347m, N 771668m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.688851, -6.813829
This site was located within Contract 4 (Navan–Kells and Kells bypass) of the M3 Clonee to North of Kells motorway scheme and was identified during testing carried out by Jo Ronayne (IAC Ltd) in 2004 (Excavations 2004, No. 1287, 04E0922). It was excavated between 18 and 31 August 2006 and interpreted as a burnt-mound site. The site is likely to be prehistoric in date but this has yet to be confirmed by radiocarbon dates. There were no artefacts recovered.
The burnt mound (9.7m by 8m) was roughly subrectangular and aligned north–south and lay in a natural depression. It consisted of two layers: the upper layer comprised dark-grey silty clay with inclusions of charcoal and burnt stones and overlay a dark black sandy/silt with inclusions of charcoal and burnt stones. The burnt mound (south-east quadrant) sealed a single sub-oval, north-west/south-east pit (0.96m by 0.7m by 0.25m) that contained a dark-grey/black, sandy silt, with inclusions of charcoal and burnt stones. To the north-west of this pit were four associated circular stake-holes (each 0.15m width by 0.25m depth) which formed no coherent pattern.
An east–west burnt spread (charcoal and burnt stones: 1m by 0.9m by 0.1m) was located c. 9m to the north-east of the large burnt mound. A small portion of it extended beyond the limit of excavation. A second deposit of burnt material (3m diameter) was located c. 5m to the south of the large mound.
This work was funded by Meath County Council and the National Roads Authority.
Editor’s note: Although excavated during 2006, the report on this site arrived too late for inclusion in the bulletin of that year.
