Well in Baltrasna (ratoath By.)

Located towards the top of a gentle N-facing slope. Archaeological testing (03E1354) by S. Halliday in Area 17 of the N2 Finglas to Ashbourne road and bypass recorded two ditches of a field system of rectangular fields (excavations.ie 2003:1362) that were further excavated by D. Fallon under the same licence when earlier features came to light (excavations.ie 2004:1178). The earliest feature is a shallow pit (dims 1.3m x 0.8m; D 0.3m) filled with clays containing charcoal that produced a C14 date of 1260-930 cal. BC and burnt stone material. Three sherds from the same cordoned urn were recovered from this pit that was slightly cut by a larger subrectangular pit (dims 4.4m x 2.5m; D 1.4m) just to its S. This achieved its greatest depth at S with a gentle slope down from the N and was filled with silts or slumped material with some animal bone, and a piece of iron slag was in the top fill. A sample from a primary fill yielded a C14 date of 170 cal. BC – 90 cal. AD. It was probably a waterhole as was a larger pit (diam. 8.5m; D 1.5m) just to its W that had a gently sloping ramp down from the NE and was deepest at SW. A large post-hole or pit bottom (diam. 0.6m; D 0.3m) was present on the ramp. The pit was filled with slump material and silts with organic material, and a sample from the basal deposit yielded a C14 date of 410-200 cal. BC. Apart from the pottery sherds no artefacts were recovered. (Fallon 2009, 31-4) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 17 December 2021