County: Meath Site name: Hilltown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 21E0153
Author: Laurence Dunne
Site type: Enclosures, kilns, pits, charcoal spread
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 704610m, N 759615m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.575978, -6.420408
Licensed archaeological testing at Hilltown, Co. Meath was undertaken in April 2021. A series of seventy test trenches extending for c.1330m were opened on the footprint of the proposed groundworks within five fields of the proposed solar farm, also targeting geophysical anomalies recorded prior to testing. Numbers of archaeological features were recorded during testing including: four enclosures (1-4) in test trenches T11, T52, T74 and T75, ten pits (T4, T7, T59 & T72), one small charcoal spread with charred bone (T40) and two possible kilns (T14/15 and T48). Nothing of archaeological interest was recorded in any of the other trenches.
Due to the testing results it was mitigated to excavate the three isolated features (the two pits and the charcoal spread) in trenches T4, T7 and T40. All other archaeological features recorded during testing were to be preserved in situ by setting up zones of exclusion using coordinates from testing. Also, it was mitigated that the ground works within the site must be monitored.
Excavation of the three features was undertaken over two days in June 2021. Three small areas were opened around the features. Each area contained only the single feature and no additional archaeology was found in proximity.
Six artefacts, three from testing and three from excavations, were recovered. The majority are small stray surface lithics including chert, flint and burnt flint. Only two artefacts, burnt flint and a small circular bronze object, were recovered from a secure context - the excavated charcoal-rich and charred bone spread.
Monitoring of groundworks at Hilltown took place in August 2021. In advance of the groundworks, eight agreed zones of exclusion were set up to preserve in situ the features recorded during testing. The circular zones were established on the ground using GNSS coordinates and the fencing posts were driven in using a track machine. Zones around the four enclosures measured 5m from outer limits of the enclosures and zones around other areas of archaeological interest measured 10m from the centre of the recorded archaeology. Nothing of archaeological interest was noted during monitoring works.
3 Lios na Lohart, Ballyvelly, Tralee Co. Kerry
