County: Westmeath Site name: NEWDOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WM027-005---- Licence number: 03E0805
Author: Orlaith Egan, Westmeath County Council
Site type: Quarry
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 651030m, N 750740m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.504176, -7.230781
Testing was conducted at an earthwork site in Newdown townland in June 2003 over a period of two days. This excavation was one of a series of investigations undertaken for the N4 McNead's Bridge to Kinnegad road realignment scheme (No. 1985, Excavations 2003). The road is situated 8km to the south-east of Mullingar and will be 4.1km in length and c. 40m wide.
The site is marked on the third-edition OS map as a former earthwork, which has been partially disturbed by quarrying. It was previously recorded on an estate map produced in 1813. There were no visible remains of the earthwork prior to testing, only evidence of quarrying.
Five 2m-wide test-trenches were excavated by machine with a 2m-wide toothless bucket, consisting of two main trenches c. 60m by 2m, parallel to each other (25m apart), and three trenches c. 25 m by 2m, positioned perpendicular to the main ones at intervals of c. 15m.
Testing failed to reveal any remains of archaeological significance. However, the extent of the quarry was established within the field, as well as two former field boundaries. A geophysical survey of the area by Earthsound, licence No. 03R080, was consistent with these results.
Project Office, Culleenbeg, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath
