Cistern in Bailis

About 25m to the N of the house (ME025-095001-) was a slight hollow (diam. c. 12m; max. D 0.9m at S) that was open to the W, and at the N edge of the excavated area, c. 45m NNW of the house was a cereal-drying kiln (ME025-095003-). In the hollow was a series of pits and channels centred on an E-W ditch (L c. 20m; Wth 0.6-1.6m; D 0.4-1.2m) that had been widened in its central section and turned SW at its W end. The channel was the last iteration of a medieval drain that extended off to the SW as part of the field system (ME025-095004-). Subsoil was cut deeper on the N side of this trench in the central area, and the pits and channels on this side were cut deeper than those on the S. An elongated pit (dims 4.4m E-W; 0.7m N-S; D 0.8m) on the N side was connected by a channel to a smaller but deeper pit (diam. 1.2m; D 0.4-1.25m) to its W. Another pit (dims 2m x 1.3m; D 0.8m) at the W edge communicated with the E-W channel but was also connected by a separate channel (L 5.4m; Wth 0.4m; D 0.4m) to a smaller pit (diam. 1.2-1.3m; D 0.6m) further N. This channel had been partially back-filled to flow N and was clay-lined to retain water. On the S side of the E-W channel were two shallower pits (dims 2m x 1.5m; D 0.2m: 3m x 2.5m; D 0.4m), the smaller of which was connected with the channel. All these pits had been used for the storage and channelling of water and functioned as cisterns. All the features were backfilled at the same time with a clay deposit that contained animal bone, brick fragments and sherds of post-medieval pottery and glass. (McGlade and Ruddy 2019, 24-29) See the attached plans from McGade and Ruddy 2019 (figs P 33, 24) _01 site plan; _02 Cisterns; Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 13 April 2023 McGlade, S. and Ruddy, S. 2019 Excavation of Site A, Bailis, & Monitoring Alexander Reid, Navan. Licence: 16E0449. Unpublished report, Archaeology Plan