County: Meath Site name: Courthill, Summerhill Road, Dunboyne
Sites and Monuments Record No.: ME050-021 Licence number: 14E0126
Author: Rosanne Meenan
Site type: Medieval activity
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 701171m, N 742200m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.420205, -6.477930
Planning permission was granted to demolish an existing building on the west side of the Summerhill Road and to construct a two-storey house in its place. Monitoring of demolition and pre-development testing was requested. The site is located on the west side of the Summerhill Road, Dunboyne. It is situated on the northern extent of the area designated as RMP ME050-021 ‘settlement cluster’.
Portion of a ditch was exposed during testing, running east-north-east/south-south-west. It was subsequently excavated by hand. Only one short portion was available for excavation as the water table is very high here and the trench was constantly flooded. The ditch was approx. 0.8m deep measured from the edge cut into subsoil to the base, 1.1m wide at the top and 0.6m wide at the base. The fill was soft, dark grey, fine silty material with occasional charcoal flecks and small clumps of the light brown boulder clay that it was cut into. It produced sherds of Dublin-type ware, Leinster Cooking ware and some animal bone.
Roestown, Drumree, Co. Meath
