What is recorded here

Half-hidden beneath the larger ring on Tlachta, a small rock-cut rath with an eastern gap held life and death in its ditch. A young child lay slab-lined in its upper fill during the fifth century AD, while cattle bones marked its earlier use. The greater enclosure later cut through the smaller ditch, erasing its boundary but never removing the child or the shape of the place.

Located towards the top of the S-facing slope of the broad Hill of Ward or Tlachta. A remote sensing survey (12R0057) identified a small enclosure (int. diam. c. 35m) defined by a single ditch feature which has an entrance gap at E. The N part of this fosse impinges on the line of the outermost bank of the visible monument (ME030-001----). (Davis 2017, 3, TL2) Archaeological excavation (E004474) in Trench 3 during 2014 at the S edge of the visible earthwork recorded a section of the rock-cut ditch (Wth of top 3.05m; D 0.8m) of this rath. A cattle bone from the primary fill produced a C14 date in the fifth century AD, and an inhumation of a 2 to 3-month old child from an upper fill in a rudimentary slab-lined grave has a C14 date in the same century. During 2015 Trench 5 was placed at the interface of this monument with the third bank of the visible earthwork and demonstrated that the rock-cut ditch of this rath was truncated by that of the larger enclosure. For summaries of the excavation see this web-page accessed on 18/04/2017: http://www.excavations.ie/report/2014/Meath/0023689/ Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 21 April, 2017

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