County: Westmeath Site name: FARRANSHOCK/SARRANSTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0980
Author: Bernard Guinan, Coosan, Athlone, Co. Westmeath.
Site type: Testing
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 641911m, N 753407m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.528952, -7.367858
Testing was required in advance of the construction of a housing development at Sarranstown and Farranshock townlands, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath. The development consists of the phased construction of a housing scheme over a four-year period. This testing focused on the part of the lands due to be developed during Phase I of construction (c. 3ha in size). In addition, testing was undertaken at strategic points in Phase III of the development, although works here are not planned until 2008.
In Phase I, four trenches were excavated using two mechanical diggers equipped with toothless buckets. Trenches I-IV were 1.5m wide and laid out east-west from boundary to boundary at regular intervals. The trenches were stripped from sod through topsoil to a natural boulder clay horizon. The western part of the test area was higher than the eastern part, which ran downhill into an area of marsh. The drier portion of the trenches consisted of peaty topsoil overlying a well-drained light-grey gravel. Occasional cultivation furrows were noted cut into this gravel. As testing progressed downslope, the topsoil changed to a well-defined mid-brown peat horizon overlying a wet, dark-grey, stony boulder clay. At the deepest, wettest part of the trenches this boulder clay changed to white marl before the land began to rise again and the natural reverted to the well-drained boulder clay overlain by the dryer peaty topsoil.
Trenches I, III and IV were archaeologically sterile. A small area of burning was noted at the edge of Trench II. The trench was expanded at this point to determine the nature and extent of this feature. Three areas of burning were identified, two of which were not archaeological in nature. The third area was a shallow cut feature filled with charcoal-stained soil mixed with sandstone and limestone pebbles. This would appear to be an isolated feature.
Test-trenches V-VIII were excavated to determine the nature and extent of a number of anomalies identified in aerial photography at the north-eastern portion of the larger development site closest to Ashe Road. Each of these four trenches was 1.5m wide and 10m long. All of these trenches were archaeologically sterile.
