2024:164 - Rathkenny, Navan, Meath
County: Meath
Site name: Rathkenny, Navan
Sites and Monuments Record No.: ME018-003
Licence number: 24E0382
Author: Linda Clarke, Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit Ltd
Author/Organisation Address: Unit 21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth. A92 DH99.
Site type: Penal church
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 689960m, N 777877m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.742758, -6.636260
Test trenching was carried out prior to the construction of a proposed development. A church (ME018-003) is recorded as being located within the boundaries of the site, with local knowledge suggesting that it may have been a Penal church. There are no visible remains of a church on the site but there is a well located 20m to the east of the site.
The site is currently occupied by a derelict house, a mobile home, a wooded garden, and a gravel trackway which leads to the farmyard. Two test trenches were excavated across the site. These revealed largely undisturbed ground, with the topsoil resting on the natural. The natural was a compact, dark greyish-orange
silt clay with occasional small sub-angular stones. A modern, steel-lined well with pipes was found in one of the trenches. Modern debris was also found within the topsoil. No archaeological features or artefacts were found during testing.