County: Meath Site name: Dowth Hall and Stables
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 21E0469
Author: Clíodhna Ní Lionáin
Site type: 18th-century Georgian house & 19th-century stables
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 702994m, N 773992m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.705449, -6.440040
A programme of monitoring of geotechnical soil investigation took place over three days, from 27-29 July 2021, at Dowth Hall and Stable Courtyard. In total, twenty-five trial pits (0.35-1.38m deep) were excavated in the basement of Dowth Hall and along the southern range of the Stable Courtyard, which is located c.42m north-west of the house. Two boreholes (2.3-4m deep) were drilled to the south-east and south of Dowth Hall, in areas that had been archaeologically excavated to natural subsoil under License 17E0242.
Although the soil investigation work was in an area of high archaeological potential, nothing of archaeological significance was encountered. The trial pits appear to confirm that the construction of these buildings removed any potential archaeological remains within their footprint. Visual examination of the borehole cores did not identify anything of archaeological significance, which suggests that they were drilled through natural subsoil.
The trial pits showed that Dowth Hall, which was constructed in the 18th century, has very shallow foundations, and structural support appears to have been provided by the underlying hard clay (glacial till), by the external basement, and by the infilling around the basement. The service wing immediately north of the house and the Stable Courtyard were both built in the 19th century and had deeper foundations.
Devenish, Dowth Hall, Co. Meath
