County: Meath Site name: Oldtully, Oldcastle
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 17E0355
Author: David Murphy
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 657196m, N 780992m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.775369, -7.132285
Testing was undertaken at the site of a proposed solar farm in the townland of Oldtully, c.1.1km east of Oldcastle, Co. Meath on 31 July 2017. The majority of the site was previously subject to geophysical survey, however, ground conditions in the south-easternmost portion of the site were not suitable for survey. As a result, seven 1.8m wide test trenches comprising a total length of 485m and a total area of 873m² were excavated in this area. No artefacts, features or deposits of archaeological significance were uncovered during testing works.
Testing revealed evidence of a number of agricultural features in the form of a raised linear feature (T.1) (most likely an early modern route-way which traverses flood-prone land situated between two areas of higher ground), a backfilled shallow ditch (T.2, T.3) (the location of which corresponds to field boundary depicted on the first edition O.S. map) and a number of shallow and ephemeral cultivation features (T.3, T.4, T.5). Further small low-relief features were evident within the topsoil, particularly across the higher and better-drained portions of the site, these largely comprised cultivation ridges or machinery route-ways which mainly impacted upon the topsoil or had only ephemeral impacts on the underlying subsoil.
In the less well-drained, lower lying portion of the site, which extended from its south-eastern corner to close to its north-western limit, a large amount of deposited stone was evident both at surface level and within the wet and clayey topsoil. While some of this stone may have emanated from the construction of the railway line which cut through the hillock to the south-west of the site, a large amount may also have been due to field improvement attempts where glacial field stones from the higher areas in the vicinity were deposited in this lower-lying and wetter area. The terrain in the vicinity of T.6, and to a lesser extent T.7, was of better quality, nevertheless both trenches were archaeologically sterile.
3A Westpoint Trade Centre, Ballincollig, Co. Cok
