County: Westmeath Site name: ROBINSTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0125
Author: Deirdre Murphy, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 640183m, N 744420m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.448327, -7.395079
An archaeological assessment was carried out on Units 7–9 and 11–14 in the new Lough Sheever Corporate Park on 11 April 2000. It is proposed to develop the site as a business and industrial park. The site is located in a wet, low-lying area surrounded by slightly higher and drier ground to the east, west and north. The town of Mullingar lies to the south. The entire site comprises some 26 acres, but the assessment was carried out on a portion of the site for which planning permission had been issued (Units 7–9, Ref. No. 99/1368) and on another area for which a planning application had been submitted (Units 11–14).
Eight trenches were excavated in the area to be disturbed by the proposed development. No archaeological stratigraphy was exposed in any of the trenches, and no finds were recovered. The material recovered from the trenches consisted of 1–2m of modern rubble above 0.5–0.6m of natural, peaty clay, which in turn overlay a whitish/grey marl. The area is very marshy, and it would appear that the southern half of the site was used for the deposition of waste material and rubble in recent times, resulting in a raising of ground level in this part of the site. The northern portion of the site remains undisturbed, with the natural, peaty clay visible immediately below the sod.
The site is located beside a Famine graveyard, which is situated on a small knoll of dry land projecting into the west side of the site. There are no known archaeological monuments in the immediate vicinity, and the lack of archaeological deposits is therefore not surprising. The development as proposed will have a low impact as the access roads and the majority of services and foundations will be above the peaty clay. No further archaeological work is considered necessary.
Archaeological monitoring was carried out at Unit 10 in the new Lough Sheever Corporate Park on 23–4 October 2000. It is proposed to develop Unit 10 as an industrial unit with ancillary services. Below the top sod was a layer of brown, peaty clay. This measured 0.5m in depth, tapering to a depth of 0.35m at the north-east edge of the area monitored. The peat overlay natural, whitish/grey marl, which contained quite a lot of stone. Some small pieces of wood were exposed during soil-stripping, but there were no archaeological structures or features present. The only finds recovered during the monitoring of Unit 10 were three sherds of modern white-glazed pottery. Natural, whitish/grey marl was exposed at a depth of 0.5m below the brown, peaty clay. As a result, there is no need for further archaeological work at Unit 10.
15 Trinity Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth
