County: Westmeath Site name: MULLINGAR: 52 Oliver Plunkett Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0701
Author: Martin E. Byrne
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 643432m, N 753046m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.525585, -7.344974
An archaeological evaluation was undertaken at a development site at the rear of 52 Oliver Plunkett Street/Blackhall Street, Mullingar, on 28 September 2000. The work was undertaken in compliance with a condition included in the grant of planning with respect to the development. The site lies outside the postulated western line of the town defences and north of the site of the Dominican priory.
Five trenches were mechanically excavated. Below the existing ground surfaces and associated formation material, a layer of soft, silty clay was uncovered. In general, this was up to 1m in thickness and directly overlay the natural subsoil. However, in one trench (T1) this layer was up to 1.5m in thickness and directly overlay organic soil, 0.3m thick, which contained fragments of animal bone. This layer was 5.2m (north–south), the nature of which indicated that it is contained within a natural depression in the subsoil. No artefacts were uncovered that would help in dating this layer.
31 Millford, Athgarvan, Co. Kildare
