Raffin Fort, ceremonial enclosure in County Meath

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What is recorded here

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Situated on the summit of a N-S ridge. When first described in 1969 (SMR file) it presented as a large ring-barrow consisting of a circular grass-covered area (diam. 40m N-S; 39.5m E-W) separated by a fosse (Wth of top 6.5-7.5m; Wth of base 2-2.5m; int. D 0.6-0.7m; ext. D 0.8-0.9m) from an outer earthen bank (Wth of base 6.5-8m; ext. H 0.5m at NW to 1.2m at SE). A NNW-SSE scarp (H 0.4m) sloping down to the W that proved to be early medieval crossed the interior and extended across the fosse at N. There was an entrance (Wth of base 1.7m) in the outer bank at SSE. The earthwork was damaged in 1988 and a subsequent excavation (E000510) in the years 1989-1993 revealed a complex of features including a possible Neolithic house (ME011-040003-), Late Bronze Age (ME011-040005-) and Early Iron Age (ME011-040007-) hut-sites, the fosse of a Neolithic enclosure (ME011-040002-), a Late Bronze Age palisaded enclosure (ME011-040004-), two timber circles (ME011-040001-; ME011-040006-), and a ritual burial (ME011-040008-). The excavation demonstrated that there was a causeway inside the entrance gap which had a metalled surface in the outer bank of the final monument (Newman 1993c, 14-15). The N-S surface scarp had a gully at its W base, and it appears to have overlain the circular Iron Age hut-site. A sample from the gully provided a C14 date of AD 380-670, but there appears to have been no further structural development of the monument after this (ibid. 18) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987).

From the National Monuments Service (Archaeological Survey of Ireland) record ME011-040

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National Inventory of Architectural Heritage

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