County: Westmeath Site name: CORRELSTOWN (Sites 94 and AE1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0103
Author: Eoin Corcoran, ACS Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 635445m, N 753975m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.534531, -7.465322
Sites 94 and AE1 were tested before the construction of the M4 Kinnegad–Enfield–Kilcock Motorway Scheme, Contract 1, on behalf of Westmeath County Council, after their identification in the archaeological part of the environmental impact statement and during the aerial survey of the route. Site 94 was identified as a low earthen mound with a second raised area to the east of it; nearby is a probable field boundary. Site AE1 was identified as a series of cultivation ridges, which were topographically surveyed before investigative excavation.
Site 94 was tested by three trenches (one of which was the centre-line trench for testing the whole motorway) dug by a machine with a grading bucket. The cultivation ridges at Site AE1 were tested by six trenches at right angles to them. As the two sites were covered by the same licence, the trenches across both sites were numbered sequentially 1–9.
Features were exposed in six of the nine trenches. In Trench 1 there were two linear features, one containing flecks of charcoal and some animal bone, and the other a probable field drain. Trench 2 contained three cultivation furrows and a probable cattle pit. Trench 3 contained a large ditch/field boundary and a semicircular cut feature containing some animal bone. Trench 7 contained traces of a field boundary. Two of the other five trenches contained traces of cultivation ridges.
The construction of the road will have a direct impact on all of the features. All appear quite recent in origin and are associated with agricultural activity in the area.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
