County: Westmeath Site name: BALRATH, Ballinagore
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 32:102 Licence number: 00E0651
Author: Sébastien Joubert
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 634569m, N 739245m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.402222, -7.480153
Pre-development testing was carried out in September 2000 before the construction of two single-storey dwellings. The site was in the townland of Balrath, west of the town of Ballinagore, and was within the zone of archaeological potential associated with a graveyard. The standing remains of the graveyard, surrounded by a modern boundary wall, are c. 50m to the south-west; the site is separated from the graveyard by the present Castletown Geoghegan road.
Five test-trenches were mechanically opened using a JCB. Two were opened at the location of House No. 1, two at the location of House No. 2, while the last trench was opened at a proposed possible entrance for the houses. Trial-holes dug by the owner at an earlier date in the percolation areas were also examined. House No. 1 was located to the north of the site, while House No. 2 was to the south. The two houses were 25m apart and c. 30m to the east of the existing road. The test-trenches averaged 4m by 1m and were orientated east–west. No archaeology was encountered in any of the test-trenches opened on the site.
Seamount, Upper Rosses, Rosses Point, Co. Sligo
