Monument record MHG31679 - Boundary Dyke - Ascoile

Linear Boundary Dyke, NC 82614 11091 to NC 82493 11009.
From the boulder dyke of Feature 031 (above), a linear boundary dyke, defined by a coarse line of occasional large boulders set into a grass-covered ridge, trends 230 degrees downhill towards a sharp corner at 282593 911066. The ridge is 1m wide and 0.4m high as it trends down the steep slope, to the W of the existing access track of Feature 001 (above), and 3m to the E of the small trapezium-shaped enclosure of Feature 030 (above). From this corner, the collapsed dyke is a loose spread of large boulders trending NW, below the trapezium-shaped enclosure and parallel to the hillside contours for 12m, before turning sharply downhill at 282584 911073, to trend down the grass-covered 14degrees-sloping hillside as a single row of large boulders towards 137 degrees for 9m to another sharp corner at 282577 911064.

Its form changes with the terrain, becoming a 0.4m high and 1m wide grass-covered peat bank, trending towards 284 degrees on flatter, marshy, grass-covered ground. Stone boulders are visible occasionally along its length, protruding from the peat interior and the bank has been breached in places. It turns towards 273 degrees at 282558 911070 and follows the contours across boggy, reed-covered ground to 282529 911072, where it curves to the SW, around the base of the steep face of a knoll to its NW, to 282516 911060, above cleared ground below and to the SE. Over this latter section it forms a wavy, low grassy ridge, around 1.5m wide and only 0.3m high, with occasional prominent large boulders.

The mound ridge then runs into the NE corner of the possible corn-drying kiln remains of Feature 038 (below), although a section splits as a kink for 4m towards 191 degrees, and then towards 225 degrees, to link again to the main dyke to the S of the corn-drying kiln, and then trends from its SE corner towards 203 degrees into the plantation (see Plate 9) of Feature 007 (above). Over this section, it is a wavy, 1m wide, 0.2m high, grass-covered bank, with cobble-sized stones in its composition, and joins the NE corner of the building of Feature 021 (above) at 282493 911009, under the pine tree cover of the plantation. <1>