What is recorded here

Half a kilometre of quiet hillside in Clonycavan still holds a rectangular enclosure, its earthen bank worn to a shallow scarp and its eastern gap wide enough for a cart or a crowd. The shape appeared on maps as a fort, then a hachured rectangle, suggesting people kept returning to the same slope because it faced the sunrise and offered room for living. Perhaps families farmed the seam, buried their dead beside the bank, or gathered there when storms flattened ordinary roofs. The grass covers the edges now, but the angle of the land and the persistence of the line indicate human hands shaped the place long before modern memory.

Located just off the summit of a hill on a SE-facing slope. A circular embanked enclosure (ext. diam. c. 45m) is depicted faintly on the 1836 edition of the OS 6-inch map where it is described as a ‘Fort’, and a rectangular hachured feature (dims c. 65m NW-SE; c. 40m NE-SW) is depicted on the 1912 edition of the map. It was described in 1969 (SMR file) as a rectangular grass-covered area (dims 63m NNW-SSE; 39m ENE-WSW) that sloped down to the SE (H 5.3m) defined by a low, widely spread earthen bank (at NNW: Wth 5m; int. H 0.9m; ext. H 0.3m). It has rounded corners and there are some old quarries in the perimeter that is frequently reduced to a scarp (at SSE: Wth 6m; H 1.4m). There is no recognisable fosse but there is an entrance (Wth of base 3m) at E. 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: 9 August 2019 Amended: 24 March 2023

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