2004:1741 - KILBEGGAN: St Mary's Avenue, Westmeath

Test excavation was carried out on a proposed development site at St Mary's Avenue, Kilbeggan, on 26 July 2004. The site lies in the eastern part of the zone of archaeological potential around the town. It comprised a long, narrow rectangular garden plot (45m by 10m) located to the rear of a property fronting on to Main Street to the north. An excavator fitted with a wide toothless digging bucket was retained to open two trenches across the site. In the southern part of the site dark-grey/brown silty sand topsoil, averaging 0.4m in thickness, overlay dark-orange/brown silty/clayey sand subsoil. The topsoil was much drier and looser in the northern part of the site. It was 0.5m thick and overlay dry, tan-coloured clayey sand subsoil. This difference is undoubtedly due to the more intensive cultivation of the northern part of the site as a garden plot. Three land drains of probable 19th/20th-century date were identified during testing. No archaeological material was discovered.

Unit 3, Howley Court, Oranmore, Co. Galway