County: Westmeath Site name: MULLINGAR: College Hill
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0524
Author: Malachy Conway, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 642412m, N 754602m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.539647, -7.360147
The site, Phase 3, College Hill, Mullingar, consisted of an area of open pasture 3.95 acres in extent within a larger application site of almost 30 acres. An archaeological appraisal in advance of proposed residential development at the site identified an unrecorded crescent-shaped mound, defined by a low bank c. 2m wide, c. 0.3m high with a ‘horseshoe’ diameter of c. 12m, which appeared to suggest a possible fulacht fiadh, located in an area of the field prone to waterlogging with prevalent reeds.
Two trenches were mechanically excavated across the mound; Trench 1 was positioned along the central axis of the horseshoe, with Trench 2 set perpendicular to it and extending west across the earthwork. Dark brown topsoil on average 0.25m deep was found to directly overlie grey-brown clay subsoil containing numerous stones. The ‘crescent mound’ was found to comprise upcast subsoil intermixed with stone and occasional red brick fragments, on average 0.4m above the surrounding field surface, and the area enclosed by the earthwork was found to be largely undisturbed except for an irregular-shaped deposit of stone and red brick rubble which had been placed into a roughly cut pit in the centre of the feature. No finds of archaeological significance were revealed.
Unit 22, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
