County: Westmeath Site name: KILLUCAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 20:129 Licence number: 00E0681
Author: Ian Russell, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 656854m, N 751864m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.513685, -7.142786
An archaeological assessment was carried out on the site of a proposed residential dwelling, garage, driveway and associated services in Killucan, Co. Westmeath, on 18 September 2000. Six test-trenches were excavated by machine within the area of the proposed development.
The site is located in the north-west corner of a cornfield in immediate proximity to a ringfort, which is extensively overgrown and lies c. 16m beyond the northern limit of the ploughed area and site boundary. The excavation revealed that the ploughsoil directly overlies the boulder clay and that the field has been extensively ploughed in the 20th century, to a maximum depth of 0.37m.
All the finds from the ploughsoil were of 19th–20th-century date; no archaeological finds or deposits were exposed. It is likely that any archaeological deposits that may have existed in the area surrounding the ringfort were destroyed during the ploughing of the site in the 20th century. Consequently the development will have no archaeological impact, and no further work is required.
15 Trinity Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth
