County: Meath Site name: Grange 4
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A029/004; E3122
Author: Carmel Duffy, Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd, 120B Greenpark Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow.
Site type: Possible prehistoric pits, stake-holes and curvilinear feature
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 680890m, N 769844m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.672080, -6.775806
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. 1245, 04E0925). It was excavated between 4 June and 28 August 2006 and consisted of a curvilinear feature, a pit that contained burnt bone and a cluster of post-holes, stake-holes and pits.
The north-west/south-east pit (2m long by 1.5m wide) was located towards the south-west of the site. It contained burnt bone, sherds of prehistoric pottery and struck chert. A stone arrangement towards the northern end of the pit may suggest that it was a cist. Seeds and hazelnuts were found towards the bottom of the pit.
The curvilinear feature was located towards the western end of the site. It was an almost-perfect half-circle, 7m long, 1.2m wide and 0.2m deep, and had two fills, the upper of which was a charcoal-rich dark-grey silty sand and the primary of which comprised a mixture of sandy clay and large flecks of charcoal. The function of this feature is currently unclear.
A cluster of post/stake-holes and pits was located roughly towards the north-eastern end of the site. In plan, these post-holes did not make any obvious pattern, apart from a possible ‘T’ shape. In general, the fill of these post/stake-holes (ranged 0.08m diameter by 0.08m depth to 0.45m by 0.41m by 0.16m) comprised a compact mid-brown silty clay.
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.
