County: Meath Site name: Micknanstown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 10E0100
Author: Rosanne Meenan, Roestown, Drumree, Co. Meath.
Site type: Testing
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 710299m, N 763264m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.607592, -6.333250
A geophysical survey and pre-development testing were requested in the grant of planning permission to construct a dwelling-house with associated wastewater system, etc. The site is located c. 100–150m to the north-east of ME033–013, an embanked enclosure, and c. 150m to the north-east of barrow ME033–014. Heathtown embanked enclosure (ME033–011) and Heathtown earthwork (ME033–012) lie two fields to the west. Fourknocks/Micknanstown henge is situated c. 700m to the south. The Fourknocks megalithic tombs and associated monuments are located on the low ridge to the south, 1.5–2km away.
A geophysical survey was carried out on the site by Earthsound (licence 10R26), which found four possible ditches across the survey area; they represented either archaeological or agricultural processes.
A series of seven trenches tested the site. The topsoil comprised a grey/brown loamy soil which was consistent over the site. It was slightly deeper along the northern side of the field, closer to the hedgerow. Underlying subsoil comprised yellow/
brown boulder clay which was stone-free in places but stonier elsewhere.
Evidence for potato cultivation was present in a layer of rotting potato stalks exposed in the layer of topsoil and in the remains of ploughmarks exposed in the surface of the boulder clay. They survived in small groups around the site. They all ran in the same direction and all of them observed the same orientation as the above-surface potato ridges and furrows.
There was no evidence for archaeological material and no artifacts were recovered.
The possible ditches, the presence of which was suggested in the geophysical survey, were not observed in the test-trenches.
