Burnt mound in Bennetstown

Situated in the valley of the N-S Tolka or Tullaghanoge River, with a canalised NW-SE section of the stream just to the NE, although the original meandering stream is c. 50m to the NE. Centre-line testing (04E0488) by R. O’Hara on the Dunboyne link road (R157) to the M3 (excavations.ie 2004:1183) identified a spread of dark soil that was partially excavated (E003026) by R. Elliott in January 2006 as Bennetstown 2 (excavations.ie 2006:1508). It consisted of a spread (dims 11.5m N-S; 4.5m E-W; T 0.2m plus) of black silty clay with burnt and broken stones that extended outside the excavated area to the NW. It was over a black/brown clay peat, into which a small pit (dims 0.4m x 0.34m; D 0.12m) had been cut, and it was covered by alluvial layers of silt. A rectangular pit (dims c. 1.7m x c. 0.5m plus; D 0.23) that cut into the top of the burnt mound was modern, and a sample of charcoal from the mound produced a C14 date of 2460-2200 cal. BC. No trough was recognised but much of the monument lies outside the excavated area to the NW. (Elliott and Ginn 2008) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 3 November 2021