Field system in Anneville or Clonard Old — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Fifty acres of rectangular fields still shadow the Clonard stream, their ditches cut during the medieval period before modern farming erased most marks. The land holds buried ring-work, motte and bailey, two burial grounds, and possibly the monasteries of St Finian, St Mary and St Peter. What looked like ordinary farmland may have been a layered religious and military landscape, now reduced to faint lines beneath the soil.

Located on both banks of the canalised NW-SE Clonard stream. Aerial photographs (CUCAP: ALK 92, AOY 46; AYR 36, 37) from the 1970s show a field system covering about 50 acres (c. 20 ha), now largely reclaimed. The fields are fairly regular (dims c. 50m x c. 30m) and are defined by silted ditches in the main. Excavation (E000154) by P. D. Sweetman in 1976 (1978, 12-15) revealed that most of the ditches were medieval and that the present canalised stream cuts some of them. Included in the complex are the ring-work (ME047-005----), enclosure (ME047-006----), and the motte and bailey (ME047-004----). Two burial grounds (ME047015----; ME047-017----) are within the fields. The site of St Finian’s monastery (ME047-007----) is at the N edge of the area and the convent of St Mary (ME047-021----) as well as the Augustinian abbey of St Peter (ME0245-022----) could be within it. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 13 August 2019

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