County: Westmeath Site name: SITE B, MULLINGAR BYPASS
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0249
Author: Robert O'Hara
Site type: Testing; burnt mounds
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 635445m, N 753975m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.534531, -7.465322
An assessment of the proposed route of the Mullingar bypass (Lynn-Marlinstown section) was requested by Westmeath County Council. The testing was carried out in February 2004. Site B was the name given to the centre-line testing of the entire route between the townlands of Lynn and Marlinstown and also included Ardmore, Boardstown, Newtown, Plodstown and Tullanisky. The centre-line trench, with alternate lateral offsets approximately every 15m, was excavated by a 24-tonne machine equipped with a 2.15m-wide grading bucket. A total of 242 test-trenches with a combined length of 6278m (resulting in a total excavated area of 13,498m2) were excavated through six townlands within the proposed road-take. Five sites, all of which survived as spreads of heat-fractured stone and charcoal, were recorded during testing in Marlinstown, Boardstown and Newtown. All of the sites were located in low-lying or marshy surroundings and appeared to be the remains of disturbed burnt mounds. These sites were excavated in May-June 2004 by Paul Stevens (Nos 1718 and 1753 above and Nos 1768, 1769 and 1770 below, 04E0687-91).
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