County: Mayo Site name: KILGARRIF WEST/CARN/BARNALYRA/CLOONLYON/KILBEAGH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E0482
Author: Bernard Guinan
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 559359m, N 803202m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.976500, -8.619510
Monitoring of pipe-laying associated with the Knock International Airport Industrial Park Sewerage Scheme took place in April and May 2003. The development involved the laying of 4.7km of sewerage pipeline. Excavations were limited to a trench c. 1.5m in width. A flexible 150mm or 100mm pipe was laid in this narrow machine-cut trench. All groundworks were monitored.
Topographically, the route of the pipeline was one of undulating pastureland interspersed with pockets of marsh and zones of deep bog. A feature of the landscape was the frequency of glacially derived sand and gravel ridges. Much of this area has been commercially exploited for the extraction of sand and gravel.
Two disused quarries were encountered along the line of the route. After the quarries were abandoned, they were used periodically as an illegal dump for small commercial and domestic waste. In places the pipe trench was dug straight through this rubbish on the quarry floor. Areas of forest plantation indicated additional modern disturbance along the pipeline route.
Finds consisted of an 1890 Victorian penny and a range of modern ceramic fragments. No features or deposits of archaeological significance were discovered during monitoring.
Coosan, Athlone, Co. Westmeath
