Pit in Portmanna

Situated on a fairly level landscape. Archaeological testing (19E0553) by I. Russell in a single large sub-triangular field (max. dims c. 350m NNE-SSW; c. 320m WNW-ESE) that almost constitutes the entirety of this detached part of the townland identified and completely excavated (excavatioins.ie 2019:726) a small pit (diam. 0.8m; D 0.18m). It had a red/brown silty base that might have resulted from in situ burning, and it was filled with a single layer of soft black silty clay with some charcoal and flecks of oxidised clay and occasional burnt bone. No artefacts were recovered. The field can be correlated with an enclosed area on the Down Survey (1656-8) maps of Dunboyne barony and parish, and the field boundaries are likely to be medieval in origin. (Russell 2019, 11-13) See the attached view from the Down Survey barony Map (N at top), reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Ireland Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 5 November, 2021