Add your own picture and explain the route, parking, gates, paths or landmarks that help people find it.
Earn 5 points after the picture is checked and accepted.
Add your photo and local directionsShare what you foundWhat is recorded here
Situated towards the bottom of a SW-facing slope with a canalised W-E stream c. 60m to the S. Archaeological excavation (03E1214) by H. Schweitzer between March and October 2004 in advance of the northern section of the N2 by-pass around Ashbourne on site 27 involved the complete excavation of six areas numbered from the S. Features recorded in Area 2 included a kiln (ME039-012001-) but the principal feature is this ditch-barrow. (Schweitzer 2009, 14)
This is a subcircular area (int. dims 3.4-3.9m; ext. dims 4.8-5.1m) defined by a U-shaped ditch (Wth of top 0.5-0.65m; average D 0.5m) with two principal deposits. The primary silt layer had a seam of charcoal which contained fragments of faience beads (O’Carroll et al. 2012, 228-32), and samples of the charcoal produced C14 dates of 900-825 Cal. BC and 740-360 Cal. BC. The former date, from a piece of oak, could represent ‘old wood’, and the latter date is a more realistic determination. One flint flake was recovered from the upper fill. There is no evidence of a mound or outer bank, or even of a burial. (Schweitzer 2009, 37-8)
Compiled by: Michael Moore
Date of upload: 3 March 2021
O'Carroll, F., Sheridan, A. and K. Eremin 2012 Rath, Co. Meath: of beads and burials. in Corlett, C. and Potterton, M. (eds) Life and Death in in Iron Age Ireland in the light of recent archaeological discoveries, 223-32, Dublin, Wordwell
The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.