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Meath
Athlumney, Co. Meath
Souterrain Complex and Scandinavian Burial
Grid reference: N881336669 (288133/266695)
SMR No: ME025-049
Excavation License No: 97E322; 98E0596
Excavation Duration/Year: September 1997, January - March 1999
Site director: E. O’Sullivan (Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd.); C. Jones (Freelance)
Four souterrains on the high east bank of the River Boyne, and a Scandinavian burial are
recorded within the townland of Athlumney, Co. Meath in close proximity (Fig. 242).
Two souterrains were identified within a quarry at Athlumney in a field above the flood-plain
of the River Boyne. Subsequent test excavation in 1997 found that no archaeological features
were associated with them within the areas investigated. Further excavation, in advance of
the construction of a business park in 1999, revealed another two souterrains, an overlying
occupation layer and several large ditches in the area.
Souterrain 1 was truncated by the quarry and survived as a short section of passage and a
small portion of a circular chamber.
Souterrain 2 – which was preserved in good condition – had a ramped entrance, two rightangled
left-hand turns in a gradually descending passage, a drop-creep, another short section
of passage and a T-junction with a passage that terminated at each end in a beehive-shaped
chamber. The entrance to the souterrain was deliberately blocked with a fill of midden
material and stones.
Only the top stones of Souterrain 3 were exposed and it was not excavated. The portion
exposed was a 6.5m length of straight passage.
A potential fourth souterrain was identified but not excavated. The exposed section revealed
a dry-stone wall that was three courses high. It is likely this represented the outside
souterrain passage wall. Two hearths and a shallow ditch were associated with an occupation
layer that had not been disturbed by the quarry. Several large ditches were also discovered.
All contained charcoal and/or animal bone. They appeared to represent multi-phase activity at
the site because they did not form an integrated pattern that would suggest a single-phase
enclosure.
Finds were limited and included two bone pins, a glass bead, fragments of lignite bracelets, a
bone bead, a few lithic flakes and some metal items. Carbonised remains of both domestic
(oats, barley, rye and wheat) and wild plants were recovered.
A Scandinavian presence is suggested in Athlumney by a horse skeleton that was found with
a collection of horse furnishings and some human bones (Harrison 2001, 72). Downham
(2003/04) suggests that the burial may be linked to the base at Rossnaree. However, it is
more likely that the burial – accompanied with a mount, a bridle-bit, four bronze-plated iron
rings and seven decorated plaques – belonged to a settlement, possibly a longphort site, at
Athlumney on the eastern bank of the River Boyne (Clinton 2000, 386-8). Clinton (2000, 388)
interprets the burial as being female which would imply a more permanent type of settlement
whereas Harrison (2001, 65, 72) believes that the presence of a large amount of horse bones
indicates the ritual deposition a male with a horse burial. Either way, it is more likely that this
burial occurred in an area – where the rivers Blackwater and Boyne merge – that featured
some form of Scandinavian settlement in the ninth century.
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