What is recorded here

Under a thin skin of topsoil in Portan, County Meath, a small charcoal-making pit still holds red and grey clay layers packed with wood ash. A single hazel charcoal fragment dated to 889-1025 AD, meaning someone was burning wood there in the early medieval period. The pit is only about a metre across and fourteen centimetres deep, yet it preserves the heat and labour of a forgotten craft.

Archaeological monitoring (15E0577) by P. Duffy, D. Bayle and J. Whitaker of topsoil stripping over a large area (c. 92 ha.) conducted intermittently conducted intermittently between Dec. 2015 and October 2018 uncovered 37 locations of potential archaeological importance (excavations.ie 2016:051). Each of these was further investigated by the same archaeologists under different licences. At Site 11 excavation (16E0150) by D. Bayley recorded (excavations. ie 2016:535) a pit (diam. 1-1.2m; D 0.14m) filled with four layers varying from grey/brown clay to red/orange oxidized clay at its edges and base. All the layers contained charcoal and a piece of hazel charcoal from the basal layer provided a C14 date of 889-1025 cal. AD (FTMC-HR36-5), placing it in the early medieval period. (Duffy et. al. 2021, 29) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 26 April, 2023 Duffy, P., Fairhead, S. & F. Fleeshouven 2021 Final Excavation Report for Sites 3-37, Clonee, Portan, Gunnocks, Co. Meath. Multiple licences, Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.