County: Meath Site name: Collierstown 2
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A008/016; E3069
Author: Stephen J. Linnane, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd, Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda.
Site type: Prehistoric cremation and cereal-drying kilns
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 694367m, N 759210m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.574282, -6.575132
This site was located within Contract 2 (Dunshaughlin–Navan) of the proposed M3 Clonee to North of Kells motorway scheme and was identified during test-trenching of the route in 2004. An isolated cremation burial within an inverted urn had been badly damaged by ploughing and only 60mm of the rim had survived. The urn and contents are currently undergoing analysis. Geophysical survey identified two parallel ditches which proved to be post-medieval field boundaries, while two figure-of-eight cereal-drying kilns, a hearth and a pit were also identified during topsoil-stripping and were excavated. The cereal-drying kilns may date from the Iron Age to the late medieval period but frequently this form dates to the early medieval period and may form part of the wider landscape associated with the ringfort site at Baronstown 1 (see No. 1263 above, A008/017).
