House — medieval in Boyerstown

HOUSE 2 (int. dims 6m NE-SW; 4m NW-SE) is just 1m SW of House 1 and was of similar construction. Its walls (Wth 0.5-0.9m; H 0.2m) only partially survive and the NW wall was entirely absent, although its outline could be traced by the edging of the surrounding metalled surfaces. The walls were built on a sandy clay which may have formed the original floor and the walls would originally have been wider. A good quoin or corner-stone was present at the S angle. A gap (Wth 1.1m) at the NE end of the SE wall is probably the entrance. There were a number of occupation deposits in the interior but there were no post-holes, although post-pads could have been provided for any roof-supports. A central hearth (dims 1.8m x 0.9m; T 0.1m) with a reddened base provided a charred wheat grain that yielded a C14 date of 1280-1400 cal. AD (Betas 247102). This makes it contemporary with House 1 and this conclusion is supported by the ceramic evidence. Wall collapse completed the deposits, and included a fragment of a quernstone. A large pit (dims 2.65m E-W; 0.85m N-S; D 0.64m) was cut into the centre of the floor after the walls had been built. It was aligned with the doorway and contained plenty of pottery, mostly Leinster cooking ware and fine Dublin ware. It was probably open while the house was in use but was itself cut by a narrow channel (L 2m; Wth 0.47m; D 0.2m). The large pit (dims 4.4m x 2.5m; D 0.7m) pre-dating both houses produced some glazed and unglazed medieval pottery. Its base had numerous stake-holes and there were clusters of stake-holes around its edges. (Martin 2009, 11-15) See the attached plans from Martin (2009, figs 10, 11, 16) _01 location; _02 plan, _03 pit under Houses 1 and 2; Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 12 April, 2023 Fairburn, N. 2004 M3 Clonee-North of Kells. Contract 3 – Navan Bypass. Report on Archaeological Assessment at Testing Area 7, Boyerstown, County Meath. Licence: 04E0580. Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services Martin, K. 2009 M3 Clonee-North of Kells. Contract 3 – Navan Bypass. Report on the Archaeological Excavation of Boyerstown 1, Co. Meath. Licence: E003105. Final Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services