Indicated — Ballycarn

The record identifies Indicated — Ballycarn as Field system. It does not safely name every person, family or worker who used it, or fix all phases to exact years.

The recorded type points to a surviving pattern of fields, banks or boundaries made by repeated farming. That explains the likely everyday purpose without claiming people, tools or customs that the exact record does not prove.

The saved source says: Situated on a level low-lying landscape with the NNE-SSW Ballycarron River, a tributary of the SE-NW Blackwater River, c. 230m to the E. The outline of these features is depicted on the 1836 edition of the OS 6-inch map, and oblique aerial photographs (CUCAP: APE 11; AVO 75) show a rectangular enclosure (dims. c. 30m NNE-SSW, c. 25m WNW-ESE) defined by earthen banks with outer fosses or moats separated from a second rectangular enclosure (dims c. 35m NNE-SSW; c. 30m WNW-ESE) just to the W by a NNE-SSW roadway (Wth c. 5m). These enclosures are at the N end of two larger associated rectangular fields (dims c. 95-100m NNE-SSW; c. 70m WNW-ESE), one of which had a large quarry (diam. c. 20m). The earthworks had not survived by 1985 (SMR file), but they are visible as cropmarks on Google Earth (28/06/2018). 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: 14 August 2019

The saved record does not establish one certain ending. A change in farming, water level, trade, fuel, ownership, route or settlement pattern may have ended the use, but no single cause is claimed without evidence.

Indicated — Ballycarn fixes a real piece of work or daily life to an exact place. Even where names are lost, its remains show how people obtained food and materials, organised land, made homes or adapted to the local ground.