County: Meath Site name: Castlekeeran 3
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A030/014; E3176
Author: Stuart Reilly, Gahan & Long Ltd, 7–9 Castlereagh St, Belfast, BT5 4NE for Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd, 21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills,
Site type: Burnt-mound activity
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 668968m, N 776094m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.729941, -6.954812
This site was located within Contract 5 (Kells–North of Kells) of the proposed M3 Clonee to North of Kells motorway, was identified during testing by Gillian McLoughlin of IAC in 2004 (Excavations 2004, No. 1200, 04E1056) and was excavated in January 2007. The site was dominated by a roughly circular burnt-mound spread (10m by 9m by 0.2m) consisting of loose, soft, black clayey silt mixed with frequent charcoal inclusions and angular-shaped, heat-fractured stones. It covered the remnants of a roughly oval-shaped, clay-lined trough (2.3m by 1.5m by 0.35m) which had been backfilled with dump material consisting of compact, friable, dark-brown clay mixed with small stones. The last traces of a clay lining survived as small concentrations of black mouldable clay along its sides and base. Both features were truncated by later north-north-east/south-south-west cultivation furrows. There were other signs of modern agricultural disturbance in the form of a U-shaped foundation cut for an outbuilding and a large stone field drain which was located at the base of the slope, on the edge of the reclaimed land.
