Banner: Knocknarea at Sunset.
Site S in the Boyne Valley megalithic complex.
Site S, the Monknewton mound to the north of the Boyne Valley megalithic complex.

Newmonktown passage grave

Site S in the Boyne Valley megalithic complex is a large mound, twenty-seven meters in diameter, to the north of the main group of sites. The River Mattock, a triburary of the River Boyne is 200 meters east of the mound. The monument itself has not been excavated in modern times but would seem to be an outlier of the Boyne Valley complex; however, fieldwork by David Sweetman in the 1970's surveyed the huge ring ditch 150 meters to the west of the mound..

The Monknewtown mound marked as a Moat with a cave on the 1837 Ordinance Survey map.
The Monknewtown mound marked as a Moat with a cave on the 1837 Ordinance Survey map.

There is a report of some kerbstones surrounding the base and of a cave within the mound, which would surely indicate that this is another passage grave. Another clue is the abundance of chunks of white quartz to be seen scattered around the mound. The monument is easy to access, located just north of the football pitch to the west of Monknewtown church.

Samples of Carrowkeel Ware and arrowheads found during excavations at Townley Hall passage grave in 1960. Image from Irish Passage Graves by Michael Herity.

Samples of Carrowkeel Ware and arrowheads found during excavations at Townley Hall passage-grave in 1960. Image from Irish Passage Graves by Michael Herity.

Sweetman's research and excavations discovered lots of activity from the neolithic and bronze ages. The monument is a huge ring-ditch, a ceremonial enclosure surrounded by a bank eleven meters wide and 1.5 meters high. Eleven pit-burials were found within the north-western portion of the enclosure, including cremations within a Carrowkeel Ware pot. An oval hutsite, five by seven meters in diameter, also contained neolithic pottery. A small ditch-barrow, seven meters in diameter was found north east of the hut, with cremated bone and a shallow pot placed in the bottom of the stone lined ditch indicates continued use into the Bronze age.

Dr. Clíodhna Ní Lionáin examins the newly discovered panel of neolithic art discovered under Dowth Hall.
Dr. Clíodhna Ní Lionáin examines the newly discovered panel of neolithic art discovered under Dowth Hall.

Megalithic Survey Report

Located on a level landscape and c. 70 meters from the edge of a steep scarp (Height c. 5 meters) down to the valley floor of a north-west to south-east section of the meandering Mattock River. This is a grass-covered mound (diameter of base 30 meters north-northwest to south-southeast; 28 meters east-northeast to west-southwest; Height c. 3 meters) that is badly damaged at south-east where it was quarried in the nineteenth century.

A kerbstone (Length 1.3 meters; Width 0.15 meters; Height 0.4 meters) is visible at south-east but the tips of other stones can also be seen protruding through the sides of the mound and there is a plough scarp north-east. The monument is described in OS Name Book (1836) as 'a small moat which has a cave in it', suggesting that it contained a megalithic chamber, possibly a passage-tomb. Archaeological testing (04E0238) by P. D. Sweetman c. 80-100 meters to the south produced no related material.

Dowth Hall excavation.
Excavations at Dowth Hall.