County: Westmeath Site name: MULLINGAR: Employment Exchange, Blackhall Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0138 ext.
Author: Martin E. Byrne
Site type: Pit
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 643560m, N 752910m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.524352, -7.343063
Testing undertaken at the site by Clare Mullins in 1998 (Excavations 1998, 211–12) resulted in a recommendation that groundworks associated with the construction project be monitored. Much of this monitoring was undertaken in 1998. However, because of structural problems it was necessary to construct three columns to underpin existing wall and roof structures. The monitoring of the pit excavations associated with this work was carried out from 29 March to 1 April 1999.
The monitoring revealed that a buried soil layer, covered in rubble, lay 1.9–2.15m below the existing floor surface; it was damp and organic in nature. Similar layers produced animal bone and sherds of pottery during the 1998 investigation. It is probable that this layer is an original 'topsoil' layer buried whilst levelling up the site in the more recent past.
31 Millford, Athgarvan, Co. Kildare
