1994:217 - KINNEGAD, Westmeath

During street improvements and road re-surfacing work a stone-built structure was discovered underneath the street, outside the parochial house. This proved to be an underbridge which was constructed in order to facilitate the building of the road above it and to provide drainage.

The structure itself consisted of two vertical piers 0.7m high supporting a segmental arch 0.53m high. The pier walls were 0.25–0.3m thick and 2.24m apart. It is the width of the span which results in the classification underbridge rather than culvert as historical convention refers to structures with a span of more than 6 feet as a bridge.

The total remaining length of the underbridge was 14m and the stream or drain for which it had originally been constructed was silted up to within 0.2m of the keystones. Some of the stones used in the construction of the arch had fallen out, and this occurred most probably as a result of vibrations caused by the volume of traffic using the road 0.2m above. For safety reasons it was decided that the structure should be dismantled.

A small cutting on the eastern side of the underbridge produced a few finds from the backfilled material presumably deposited at the time of construction. As well as four pieces of animal bone and one small piece of clear patinated glass was a rimsherd of a large butter pot. This was identified as coming from a straight-sided Buckley ware jar probably originating from the North Wales/Cheshire region and dating from the mid-17th century at the earliest, but more likely to date from the latter part of the century.

This find would tend to confirm the age of the structure as dating from the construction of the town of Kinnegad at the beginning of the 18th century.

The excavation lasted three days and the dismantling took one day.V.J. Keeley was the project director.