Kiln in Clonee (dunboyne By.)

Situated on a gentle NW-facing slope in the flood-plain of the NW-SE Tolka River which is c. 300m to the N. Archaeological monitoring (08E0605) by C. McCarthy of topsoil stripping over an extensive area (max. dims c. 450m N-S; c. 350m E-W) identified five areas with archaeological deposits and features (excavations.ie 2008:943). One was post-medieval, and three of the others were resolved under a different licence (08E0840) by the same archaeologist. This is Area 5, which is preserved in situ under the re-constituted ground (dims c. 40m N-S; c. 35m E-W) where extensive archaeological deposits were uncovered. Numerous features such as pits, linear features, cereal-drying kilns and furrows were identified overlying deeper deposits. A large spread of charcoal-rich soil is probably related to a kiln and there were thick spreads of silty clay containing charcoal, animal bones and pottery. Three possible kilns were identified as figure-of-eight spreads (dims 2.5m x 0.7m to 5.5m x 1.5-2.9m) with high volumes of charred material including nuts and seeds. Some post-medieval furrows and drainage ditches run NNE-SSW across the area, but three large ditches (Wth 2.5m; D 0.95m plus; Wth 4.5m; D 0.75m plus; Wth 3.9m; D 1m plus) with plentiful large stones were also sampled. The complex is probably medieval in date, and a smaller area of drainage ditches further to the S was also encountered. (McCarthy and Mitchell 2008, 16-19) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 9 November 2021