County: Meath Site name: Kilkeelan, Athboy
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 17E0354
Author: David Murphy
Site type: Probable fulachta fiadh
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 669543m, N 766947m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.647675, -6.948155
Testing was undertaken between 21 and 24 August 2017 at the site of a proposed solar farm development in the townland of Kilkeelan, which is located c. 2.8km outside the town of Athboy, Co. Meath. A geophysical survey of the subject site was completed by J.M Leigh Surveys Ltd (Licence no. 17R0082) prior to the archaeological testing programme. The layout of the site investigations took the form of 30 linear test trenches positioned to target areas of increased archaeological potential identified through analysis of the results of the geophysical survey. Also targeted were areas of hardstanding/infrastructure associated with the proposed development. In total, 1330 metres of 1.8m-wide archaeological test trenches were excavated across Areas A, B, C and D of the site.
The vast majority of geophysical responses which were targeted during the testing programme proved to be either agricultural-related features or naturally occurring subsoil variations. However, archaeological remains were revealed in two trenches, Trench 26 (T.26) and Trench 27 (T.27).
At the south-eastern end of T.26, archaeological remains in the form of a concentration of heat-shattered stone within a matrix of charcoal-rich sandy silt, interpreted as a burnt spread, were revealed at ITM grid co-ordinate 669543, 766947. The trench in the area of the burnt spread was expanded to reveal dimensions of at least 4m north to south by 4m with a general depth of between 0.1m and 0.2m.
In T.27, close to its south-east end at ITM grid co-ordinate 669647, 766900, two further probable archaeological features were revealed. Feature 1 (F.1) comprised a c. 3m wide band of heat-shattered stone mixed with dark grey to black, charcoal-rich clayey silt and yellowish-brown clayey silt which extended across the full width of the trench in a roughly north to south direction. Manual investigation at the south-west corner of the feature revealed that this burnt material was contained within a large cut of at least 0.5m depth. The cut may be up to c. 3m in width, a distinct curve in the side of the cut in its south-west corner likely rules out the possibility that the burnt material is a result of modern re-deposition through the use of machine. This may be a trough-like feature associated with pyrolithic technology.
Feature 2 was revealed within T.27 c. 2.5m to the south-east of F.1; it comprised the northern portion of a shallow sub-rectangular deposit of mid to dark grey clayey silt which contained frequent inclusions of heat-shattered stone and charcoal. Within the excavated trench this feature measured 1.3m east to west by 1.1m; manual investigations at the south side of the deposit revealed a depth of 0.12m. No cut was evident beneath the deposit.
Appropriate mitigation procedures will be implemented to ensure the revealed features are preserved in-situ if the development proceeds.
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