Well in Baltrasna (ratoath By.)

After the high medieval field ditches (ME045-033----) became largely silted, and probably sometime during the fourteenth century, four large pits were dug, the largest of which cut one of the silted ditches. The earliest pit (dims 5.5m x 3.06m; max. D 1.32m), filled with silts that produced a few sherds of Dublin-type fine ware, was cut on its N side by the largest pit (diam. 7m) that had steep sides (D 1.75m) except at SE where there was a gentler ramp. This pit was filled with silts that had a high organic content at the base where three stakes were secured with packing stones. A fragment of a wooden vessel in the form of a mether with only one surviving handle was recovered from the pit and produced a C14 date of 1270-1400 cal. AD. A radiocarbon date of 1420-1500 cal. AD was provided by a sample from a tertiary fill of this pit. Evidence of wheat, barley and oats was found as well as cattle, sheep and pig bones. The skeletal remains of a cat and at least one dog as well as owl bones were also recovered from upper fills. Another large pit (dims 6m x 3.5m; D 1.87m), 17m to the W had a flat bottom and was filled with silts that had a high organic content and produced medieval ceramics from the tertiary fills. An oval pit (dims 9.2m E-W; 2.3m N-S; max. D 1m) 13m further N had a single highly organic fill, produced one sherd of Leinster cooking ware, and yielded a C14 date of 1280-1400 cal. AD. These medieval waterholes had prehistoric predecessors (ME045-033005-) c. 30m to the N. (Fallon 2009, 40-44) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 17 December 2021