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Enclosure in Roestown (ratoath By.)

Enclosure

What is recorded here

No visible boundary remains, yet the ditch still cuts sixty metres through grass and memory. Buildable in principle, unreachable in practice, the enclosure repeats the human trap: a line drawn around what cannot be owned. Roestown does not need a wall when the enclosure already lives inside the person it is named for.
In Area B Enclosure 11 is the principal annexe associated with Phase 1 of the rath, Enclosure 1, and it extends outside the excavated area to the W. It is contemporary with the construction of the rath in Phase 1 and is defined by the fosse of Enclosure 1 on the N side and a fosse (Wth 2.1m; D 1.34m) extending SW (L 63m plus) from the SE angle of the rath but turning NW at its W limit. The ten layers within the ditch were usually sterile with some animal bone, and there was evidence of four minor re-cuts before one major re-cut (L 60m; Wth 2.17m; D 0.75m) whose eight layers also proved to be largely sterile with only occasional animal bones and charred oats and barley grains and charcoal. (O’Hara 2009, 18-19; 2009a) True location: ITM (695713, 753792) See the attached images from O'Hara (2009, figs 7, 44, Pl. 2) _2 Site plan; _3 Phase 1; _7 Aerial view; Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 26 April 2022 O’Hara, R. 2009 M3 Clonee - North of Kells, Contract 2 Dunshaughlin - Navan. Final Report on the Archaeological Excavation of Roestown 2, Co. Meath. Licence: E003055. Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services O’Hara, R. 2009a Early Medieval Settlement at Roestown 2. In Deevy, M. and Donald Murphy 2009 Places Along the Way, 57-82. NRA Scheme Monographs: 5.

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What survives
Recorded monument

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