2007:1384 - Ross 1, Meath

This site, located within Contract 2 (Dunshaughlin–Navan) of the proposed M3 Clonee to North of Kells motorway, was identified during testing by Linda Clarke in 2004 (Excavations 2004, No. 1210, 04E0422) and was excavated between December 2006 and March 2007. The site comprised the remains of ME038–001 (enclosure) and ME038–002 (field system), identified as cropmarks from Cambridge University Aerial Photographs taken in the 1950s (CUCAP AYS 58). Neither site was associated with upstanding features.
The enclosure at Ross 1 comprised the remains of a circular ditch (external diameter 47m, average 2.8m width by 1.1m depth) with a south-east entrance (4m wide); the south-west quadrant of the ditch was recut to a depth of 1.8m. The remains of the enclosure were fully excavated, apart from a 20m-long stretch of the outer edge of the ditch to the north-east, which was external to the land-take. The fills produced a moderate amount of animal bone and small quantities of unworked wood and burnt-bone fragments. The most notable stratified artefacts were a decorated copper-alloy stick-pin, of possible 11th-century date, and a polished copper-alloy ring-like object. Two stony causeways were established across the west side of the completely infilled ditch, providing additional points of access to the interior. The enclosure ditch was impacted by a number of later field ditches and land drains, post-dating the levelling of the monument, mostly aligned north-west/south-east. A penannular slot-trench, diameter 4.65m by 0.36m wide, with a west-facing gap of just 0.35m, was located in the south-east quadrant, close to the inner edge of the ditch. Three archaeological features, a possible cereal-drying kiln and two hearth pits containing charcoal and burnt bone, were fully excavated external to the enclosure on its northern side.
One of the cropmarks related to the second RMP site when investigated proved to be a north-west/south-east field ditch with a drain at the bottom of modern origin. The largest cropmark was an immensely long curving feature with an estimated width of 6m. The photographic evidence suggested it was located at the south-east corner of the stripped area, entering from the eastern side of the land-take and, curving to the south, continuing beyond the southern limit of excavation. No on-the-ground evidence for this substantial feature was revealed. It may be a linear geological or otherwise natural trend of some kind, located some distance below the surface of the subsoil, and not of archaeological significance.
Only one of the cropmarks turned out to be of archaeological interest. This was a linear ditch aligned north–south, extending from the south edge of the enclosure. Excavation revealed that the linear ditch was contemporary with the recutting of the south-west quadrant of the enclosure ditch. It had an excavated length of 57.5m, by 2.6m wide and 1.8m deep. The ditch was recut in the late medieval period. The recut commenced 10m south of the enclosure, and had an excavated length of 48m, by 2m wide and 0.5m deep. The recut fill contained several sherds of glazed and unglazed medieval pottery and several iron objects, including a belt buckle, a horseshoe and a number of nails.
The site appears to consist of the levelled remains of a univallate ringfort, which is likely to date from the 6th to 8th centuries ad. The penannular slot-trench, the remains of a small hut-like structure, was located next to the inner edge of the ditch, where the enclosure embankment would have been located, and most likely represents evidence for an earlier, probably prehistoric, phase of activity. Surface water may have been a problem for the occupiers of the ringfort, as the recutting of part of the enclosure ditch, dropping its base level quite considerably, along with the addition of a deep ditch heading south from the settlement, was probably done for drainage reasons. The infill deposits recorded throughout the ditch are consistent with gradual, natural infilling of the ditch over a prolonged period, a process that was substantially complete by the time the copper-alloy stick-pin, of 11th or 12th-century manufacture, found its way into the upper level of the fill. There is no evidence for the existence of a bank along the inside of the ditch, but the levelling of the monument is likely to have taken place long after the ditch was infilled, and therefore deposits of upcast clay and stone derived from the bank do not feature in any of the ditch sections.