County: Westmeath Site name: MULLINGAR: Bellview
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E0417
Author: Ellen OCarroll, The Archaeology Company
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 643841m, N 752922m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.524437, -7.338825
Monitoring was undertaken at Bellview in the grounds of Bellsize House, on the outskirts of Mullingar town. Monitoring of the site involved general ground reduction to an average depth of 0.8m. Topsoil was removed by a mechanical excavator using a 2m-wide bucket. The area monitored comprised c. 1 acre.
The stratigraphy on the eastern side of the site comprised 0.2m of mid-brown topsoil with roots and some stones. The ploughsoil (0.6m) underneath was mid-brown/orange loosely compacted silty clay. The western side of the site contained darker wetter soils. The upper 0.2m of topsoil was grey/brown. Underneath was a stony grey sticky clay layer (0.4m in depth) and underneath this was a darker brown silty clay layer with only a moderate amount of angular stones. There appeared to be a natural gravel knoll at the southern end of the site close to Bellsize House. Ground reduction in this area produced a grey sticky soil with a substantial amount of subangular medium-sized stones. The stones were recorded to a depth of 2m. There were very little modern ceramics found during monitoring. No archaeological features were uncovered during the monitoring.
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