County: Kildare Site name: PITCHFORDSTOWN (Site 105)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0151
Author: Dermot Nelis, IAC Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 685689m, N 739892m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.402211, -6.711399
Testing was carried out as part of the Kinnegad– Enfield–Kilcock (Contract 3) Bypass. The overall scheme (Contracts 1–3) involves the excavation of c. 35km of motorway, commencing to the south-west of Kinnegad in County Westmeath and continuing eastward through counties Meath and Kildare, terminating at the western end of the existing M4 motorway at Kilcock. Contract 3 covers the route from Kilcock to the east of Enfield (c. 11km).
Site 105 was described in the environmental impact statement as a series of cultivation ridges oriented east–west. The hollow associated with the feature was recorded in the environmental impact statement as 1m wide, with the rise 1.2m wide. One linear and ten offset trenches were excavated. Testing revealed topsoil sealing geologically deposited strata across the whole site. Topsoil was on average 0.4m deep over natural, compact, sticky, mid- to dark brown clay.
Testing failed to reveal any archaeological remains. Ploughmarks associated with the ridge and furrow did not cut the natural, suggesting only shallow activity in this area. The presence of modern pottery sealed by cultivation ridges immediately to the north of Site 105 (at Site AE29) suggests that these features are modern and therefore of no archaeological significance.
This project was funded by Westmeath County Council.
8 Dungar Terrace, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin
