Kiln in Dunshaughlin

Situated on a slight S-facing slope. A remote sensing survey (18R0012) by J. Nicholls (2018) identified numerous potential archaeological features and archaeological testing (18E0495) by L. Kavanagh (Kavanagh and Tobin 2018) confirmed the presence of three isolated pits, two burnt mounds and a ring-ditch (excavations.ie 2018:226). The features were subsequently excavated by M. Piera under the same licence (excavations.ie 2019:735). A keyhole-shaped kiln (dims 3.2m NW-SE; 1.7m NE-SW; max. D 0.35m) had a combustion chamber at the NW with a narrow flue extending SE. A red-orange burnt clay indicated firing in situ. It had two other clay fills, one with charcoal flecks and lumps of burnt clay found only in the flue. Two oblong pits (dims 2m x 0.6m; D 0.34m: 2.6m x 0.54m; D 0.28m) extended E-W end to end just S of the SE end of the flue. Each had a lining of grey/brown stony sandy clay overlain by a sandy clay, from which a few sherds of prehistoric pottery were recovered. (Piera 2020, 19-20) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 10 December 2021