County: Roscommon Site name: MONKSLAND SEWERAGE SCHEME
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0014
Author: Martin E. Byrne
Site type: Burnt spread
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 600702m, N 741298m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.421797, -7.989439
Monitoring associated with the Monksland Sewerage Extension Scheme commenced in January 1999 and continued intermittently until mid-October. The work was undertaken in compliance with a request from the NMHPS, Dúchas, following the submission of an assessment report prepared by the writer.
The project area is to the immediate east and south-east of the urban boundary of Athlone, which also coincides with the county boundary between Roscommon and Westmeath, in the district of the Daneshill/Monksland/Old Tuam road and the Galway road. The scheme is, in general, a western extension to the Athlone Westside Main Drainage Scheme (see No. 856, Excavations 1999).
The work generally entailed the monitoring of specified pipe-trench excavations, mostly along existing roads, although a small portion of the scheme called for pipes to be laid in green-field areas. One such area was at Daneshill, where the ground conditions of peaty soils over an unstable, sandy subsoil caused the line to be abandoned and redesigned. It is expected that work will recommence in this area sometime during 2000.
To date, the only feature of interest was an area of burning c. 220m north of Millbrook Bridge on the Tuam road. This consisted of a layer of intermixed ash and charred wood. The layer extended for a length of c. 7m and lay up to 1.25m below the existing road surface. There was no evidence that the material lay in a cut. A sample has been submitted for 14C dating, and the material will also be submitted for environmental analysis. It is hoped that such analysis will aid in the interpretation of the feature.
31 Millford, Athgarvan, Co. Kildare
