2007:1327 - Headford Row, Kells, Meath

An excavation was carried out over the course of three weeks in March 2007 with a crew of one director and four site assistants in an urban setting at Headford Row, Kells, Co. Meath. The site consists of a roughly rectangular area at the rear of a listed building at Headford Row in the centre of the medieval town. Previous excavations have encountered archaeological remains along this street as it is the main route out of Kells heading east towards Dublin. The site was dominated by features of a post-medieval/modern nature, with three identified features of a medieval nature remaining fairly intact lying beneath this modern disturbance. The ratio of medieval to post-medieval/modern disturbance is roughly 1 to 10. The site can be divided into three areas of interest.
The most prominent features the site exhibited were modern drains, outhouse foundations and a modern well at the southernmost extent of the site directly abutting the existing dwelling. The second is the remains of a rubble structure and a single pit at the central and western area of the site which exhibited medieval material within. The third is two interconnecting boundary walls at the eastern and northern extent of the site. It is not believed that these features are connected in date and it is more than possible that the intensive later intrusions may have removed earlier medieval features of which there is no longer any trace.
The site is believed to be the remains of a burgage plot which has been extensively disturbed from the medieval period to the present. Three irregular-shaped features identified in the site contained large amounts of charcoal and moderate amounts of pottery, believed to be 13th-century domestic ware. It is believed that these features were refuse pits and the earliest evidence for habitation on the site. Later stone features, most notably intersecting rough boundary walls and a well, were from the post-medieval/modern era. Specialist reports are forthcoming.