EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Meath
Baronstown, Co. Meath
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure Complex
Grid reference: N94405936 (294401/259365)
SMR: N/A
Excavation Licence No: A008/017
Excavation duration: September 2006 – April 2007
Site director: S. Linnane (ACS Ltd.)
Baronstown excavated in advance of the M3 road-scheme was a large early medieval
enclosure complex (Fig. 229). It appears to have functioned as a well fortified farmstead in its
early years but its importance gradually declined until its abandonment probably in the tenth
or eleventh centuries. Artefacts were relatively scarce for a site of this scale but a successful
mixed agricultural economy was evident by a large animal bone assemblage and the presence
of a number of cereal-drying kilns. The site was located on the summit of a small hill – at
112m OD – and the ground sloped steeply down to the River Gabhra to the west and more
gently to the north. This afforded the site a prominent position within the immediate
landscape and resulted in commanding views to the north, east and west. The lower ground
in these areas would have been subject to flooding prior to canalisation of the river.
The first early medieval phase at Baronstown witnessed the construction of a circular
enclosure which had an internal diameter of 40m. The enclosing ditch was on average 4m
wide and 3m in depth and was re-cut on numerous occasions. The ditch became smaller after
each re-cut and it appears its defensive role receded as the centuries passed. One of the
primary ditch fills was dated to A.D. 540-654 while a later deposit returned a date of A.D.
880-1022 (see below for radiocarbon dates). The radiocarbon dates, ditch re-cuts and finds
assemblage indicate that the circular enclosure was in use across many centuries.
Few features survived internally within the initial enclosure and this is likely due to many
centuries of farming activity and truncation of the archaeological deposits. The most
significant feature was a C-shaped enclosure with its open end to the north. It had an internal
diameter of 14m and at its greatest was 2.8m wide and 0.93m deep. Two re-cuts were noted
within the ditch fills and the primary fill was dated of A.D. 645-772. This suggests that the
enclosure was constructed slightly later than the circular enclosure but they would also have
been in use contemporaneously for a considerable time. Its function remains unclear. It was
too big to have acted as a drainage ditch while it probably did not enclose a house as early
medieval dwellings are not generally enclosed by such features and, when circular, they tend
to be found closer to the middle of enclosures.
An outer enclosure – that enclosed the circular enclosure – was dug at approximately the
same time as the C-shaped enclosure. Radiocarbon dates from its basal fills were slightly later
than those of the circular enclosure and ranged from A.D. 687-895 and A.D. 684-887. Two
ditch re-cuts were evident and, similarly to the primary circular ditch, the ditch became
smaller after each modification. A causewayed entrance was located at the west which faced
the Gabhra River. The new enclosure was dug close to the circular ditch at its south side but
gradually diverged, moving northwards, along the east and western sides to eventually create
a much larger enclosure which measured 70m west-east by 30m north-south. Therefore,
Baronstown expanded in size within a few generations of the site’s primary use.
The entrance into the circular and outer enclosure was located to the southeast. It consisted
of linear cuts in the subsoil which extended from the internal edge of the inner ditch, across
the area between the inner and outer ditches and beyond the outer edge of the latter ditch.
It appears that large timbers were placed in the cuttings which formed the base of a bridge.
Successive layers of metalling were found in the area to the south of the outer ditch which
reinforces the theory that a bridge was utilised here. A scatter of pits and postholes in the
vicinity of the bridge crossing may indicate the location of a timber gatehouse but the
surviving features were too flimsy to attempt any form of accurate reconstruction. Of interest
was the burial of a horse’s skull in a pit central to the internal edge of the bridge crossing;
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