County: Westmeath Site name: GRIFFINSTOWN (Sites 95 and 96 and near Site 1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 27:61 Licence number: 02E0105
Author: Eoin Corcoran, ACS Ltd.
Site type: Designed landscape - avenue, Church and Graveyard
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 656703m, N 746726m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.467534, -7.145990
Sites 95 and 96 and an area near Site 1 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, in the aerial survey of the route and in a topographical survey of the area. Site 95 was identified as a linear earthen feature; Site 96 was an earthen slope; and Site 1 was a known monument comprising a ruined church and graveyard.
Site 95, identified on the 1837 OS 6-inch map as an avenue leading to Griffinstown House, was tested by four trenches dug by a machine with a grading bucket. Site 96 was tested by two machine-dug trenches. Site 96 proved to be a natural slope. The motorway corridor near Site 1 was tested by two trenches.
Features were exposed in two of the eight trenches. One of the trenches testing Site 96 exposed a charcoal-rich shallow pit. The second trench that tested the area near Site 1 revealed a subrectangular spread of material containing flecks of cremated bone and a ditch feature.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
