County: Longford Site name: TEMPLEMICHAEL GLEBE, LONGFORD
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E1167
Author: Emer Dennehy, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 613653m, N 775737m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.731115, -7.793089
Monitoring took place of all ground disturbance works associated with the construction of a food factory in Templemichael Glebe, on the Ballinalee Road on the outskirts of Longford town. The site is located in direct proximity to the site of a putative castle (SMR 13:16). A geophysical survey identified the remains of a walled garden in the area of the supposed castle, but no definitive remains of the castle were identified. The site had previously been tested by William Frazier (No. 1051 above, 04E0559); no artefacts or stratigraphy of an archaeological nature were identified.
Monitoring associated with Phase I of the development works related to the removal of topsoil to accommodate the construction of the factory building, access road and parking. Phase II work relates to the construction of additional staff parking in the portion of the development site which backs on to the River Camlin. The topsoil was removed using a twenty-tonne track machine fitted with a 2m grading bucket. Topsoil was removed to an average depth of 0.3m and was composed of a well-drained orange/brown sandy clay. Occasional leaching of the topsoil was identified along the northern site boundary indicative of the saturation of land by water over prolonged periods of time. The subsoil was predominantly composed of oxidised orange/ brown sandy clay. The land had been subject to heavy ploughing and was truncated in a north-south direction by a large sewer pipe.
It was proposed that the access route would be constructed on the route of the existing gravel road. Due to the presence of overhead power cables a portion of this road was rerouted in a southern direction, causing the removal of a 23m length of walling from the walled garden. This wall had a width of 0.9m and a height of 0.5m. The wall was externally faced with a limestone blocks and bonded with a sand-and-gravel mortar; it had a mortared rubble limestone core. No artefacts or stratigraphy of an archaeological nature were identified.
