What is recorded here

Half a mile from the R158 road, a child lies folded in the entrance ditch of a double-ringed fort dated between AD 715 and 962. The inner ditch is two metres deep and five metres wide at the top; the outer is shallower and narrower, with two untested gaps in its east-south-east wall. A mound sits inside the circle to the north-west, and the whole remains buried beneath the new road and the field beyond. The fairness in its name may be later invention, but the child in the gateway is not.

Situated in a level landscape. Remote sensing in advance of a new line for the R158 road from Trim to Summerhill and Kilcock identified a portion of a double-ditched circular enclosure, with the motte (ME036-043----) in the interior at NW. Archaeological testing (04E0987) showed that the inner V-shaped ditch (Wth of top 5m; D 2.1m) was 2.3m distant from the outer (Wth of top 2m; D 1.05m), and calibrated radiocarbon dates of AD 775-962 and AD 715-936 were recovered from the bases of the respective ditches (Breen 2010, 43, App. 16). This dating is supported by the artefacts recovered. There was no evidence of banks associated with either fosse but an entrance (Wth 6m) through the inner was occupied by the flexed burial of a child. The outer ditch had two entrance gaps, which were not investigated. The entrances are in the ESE part of the enclosure, and the monument is preserved beneath the road and in the field to the SW. (Breen 2007) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 9 November, 2017

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