County: Meath Site name: Ratoath
Sites and Monuments Record No.: Within ME044-034---, Historic Town Licence number: 23E0164
Author: Declan Moore
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 701985m, N 751940m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.507547, -6.462530
A programme of archaeological testing and assessment of a proposed development Main Street, Ratoath, County Meath was carried out. The proposed development is located within the zone/s of notification for the historic town of Ratoath (ME044-034--) and the nearby motte and bailey (ME044-034001--). Previous excavations in the general area have exposed features and finds of archaeological significance including ditches, pits, gullies, and medieval and post-medieval wares.
Archaeological testing at the site was carried out in bright and dry conditions on 14 April 2023. The author supervised the machine excavation of 6 test trenches in a grid pattern.
Internally the site is partially covered with weeds over builder’s fill, to the north and the east of the site is a concreted area of hard standing. Thick scrub bush and some dumped material obscures the site to the north.
The stratigraphy exposed was a layer of gravel and areas of concrete hardstanding over a deposit of 19th/20th-century rubble and detritus extending to an average depth of 500mm. Testing at the western side of the site revealed a shallower deposit of rubble reaching a maximum depth of 400mm. A natural yellow to mid-brown deposit underlay the rubble material.
Nothing of archaeological significance was noted. The entire site had been excavated and backfilled/levelled up in the relatively recent past probably to facilitate developments on the north, west and east. Excavations by Deirdre Murphy in 1997 (Excavations.ie 1997:432) in a site immediately west of the subject site revealed a similar stratigraphy.
3 Gort na Rí, Athenry, Co. Galway
