County: Westmeath Site name: BARONSTOWN (Kilbixy)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0409
Author: Rosanne Meenan
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 632244m, N 761920m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.606136, -7.512790
Testing was requested at this site. A motte (SMR 11:39) stands at the south end of the field, close to St Bigneach’s church and to ruins marked as ‘Leper Hospital’ (SMR 11:40). There are irregularities in the surface of the field that may be artificial, but there are also many rock outcrops. This part of the field had been used for gravel quarrying, which may account for the irregularities in the surface. There are earthworks in the field to the east of the site.
Five trenches tested the location of the proposed two-storey dwelling-house and driveway. Topsoil was 0.2–0.7m deep, with many large stones and small boulders in places. The underlying natural boulder clay varied from a fine brown clay to a very coarse gravel. Archaeological features were not observed in the trenches, and artefacts were not recovered during excavation or in examination of the spoil.
Roestown, Drumree, Co. Meath
