County: Meath Site name: BALREASK OLD
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 09E0567
Author: Deirdre Murphy, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd, Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth.
Site type: Miscellaneous features
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 686866m, N 766362m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.639836, -6.686368
An assessment took place from 9–15 December 2009 of the site of a proposed residential development at Balreask Old, Navan, Co. Meath. The site was located to the south of Navan town and 300m from the nearest RMP site to the east (ME025–035), which is classified as a souterrain.
The site comprises five fields and is located in a relatively flat open landscape below the 200ft contour. A geophysical survey of the development was carried out in advance of the testing phase by Target Archaeological Geophysics (licence 09R219). Anomalies were detected during the geophysical survey in three main areas within Fields 1, 3 and 4. A total of 35 test-trenches were excavated throughout the site in order to confirm the results of the geophysical survey. The majority of the trenches consisted of brown topsoil overlying natural marl. A large number of archaeological features were encountered, many of which corresponded with anomalies identified during the geophysical survey. These features were contained within Fields 1–4 and included burnt-mound spreads, pits and linear ditches.
