2001:1392 - MULLINGAR: 13 Pearse Street, Westmeath

The development site was within the zone of archaeological potential for Mullingar. Pre-development testing was requested by Dúchas. The site lies c. 600m west of the River Brosna, on Pearse Street, the main medieval thoroughfare of Mullingar. All Saints parish church lies some 200m to the south of the development. A frankhouse is marked in this location on a map of 1641, and the 1691 fortifications of the town also ran close to the development site. All Saints parish church was founded around 1200. A church building there was in good repair through the 17th century but a new structure was built in 1836. There is a reference to the cemetery of this church lying between the church and the Brosna, and therefore possibly in the vicinity of 13 Pearse Street.

Three trenches tested the area after the existing house was demolished. Nothing of archaeological interest was exposed in Trenches 1 and 2, located at the north end and the middle of the site respectively. At a point 6m north of the south end of Trench 3 the remains of a shallow ditch-like feature were exposed. The edge on the south side was particularly clear. It was 2m wide north–south. Its maximum depth was 1m below the present ground level. It was filled with very soft black material similar to the black soil elsewhere on the site and also contained some timber fragments and animal bone. There was no evidence for cess. There were no artefacts in the fill. Also contained within the fill were lenses of grey subsoil that had been redeposited into the feature.

Monitoring was carried out when the pit for the lift shaft was excavated in the vicinity of the ditch-like feature. It was also bottomed at this point. It was filled with loose stones at the bottom with black silt on top. The latter produced a clay pipe stem and a sherd of 18th-century glazed red earthenware. The feature was interpreted as a possible sump or soak-hole as a drain ran into it from the west side.

Roestown, Drumree, Co. Meath