County: Westmeath Site name: SYONAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: RMP 31:87 Licence number: 01E0676
Author: Bernice Molloy, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 627376m, N 740093m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.410263, -7.588249
Syonan is approximately 1.6km to the north-west of Horseleap, off the main Dublin–Galway road. The site is in a green field on an area of high land that slopes westwards to a stream valley and has a view to the west and north.
The site was tested in advance of the construction of the gas pipeline from Ballough, Co. Dublin, to Goat Island, Co. Limerick. The gas pipeline ran east–west through the constraint area of a recorded monument. The way-leave for the gas pipeline is 40m wide and test-trenches were excavated across it within the constraint area of the monument.
The area of the site was considerably disturbed. A laneway cut through the site, as did the railway between Streamstown and Clara (now dismantled). Trenches 1 and 2 were to the west of the laneway. The cut for a railway underpass was visible in both trenches. This was constructed by Great Western Midland prior to the construction of the railway in 1850. Trenches 3 and 4 revealed a curving ditch, the full extent of which could not be exposed.
A slight realignment of the pipeline to the south was recommended to prevent the destruction of the underpass.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
