What is recorded here

Drakestown held a fort on a ridge until men removed the earthwork in 1933 and found an underground passage beneath it. The ridge stretched about 150 metres, and the hidden passage emerged only after the visible fort disappeared. What was buried there may have been a refuge, a treasury or a room for ceremony, but the ground no longer answers that question.

Situated at the NW summit of what was a small NW-SE ridge (L c. 150m). An earthwork is depicted as an oval stippled feature (ext. dims c. 55m NE-SW; c. 45m NW-SE) described as a ‘Fort’ on the 1836 edition of the OS 6-inch map, and as an arc of hachures W-N on the 1908 edition. An earthwork was removed in 1933 when the Man-made underground passage (MW012-026002-) was discovered. It was described in 1968 (SMR file) as a roughly rectangular area defined by a scarp (max. H 1.8m at NE) S-N-E that merged into the summit of the ridge E-S. 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 upload: 10 July 2007 Amended: 2 August 2022

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