2004:1768 - NEWTOWN (1), Westmeath

Excavation of a site in Newtown townland, on the outskirts of Mullingar town, Co. Westmeath, was undertaken in May 2004 in advance of the proposed N52 Mullingar bypass. The site was discovered during testing of the road scheme undertaken by Rob O'Hara (No. 1755, Excavations 2004, 04E0249). The site was revealed to contain two phases of activity covering the prehistoric and possibly medieval periods. Archaeological features consisted of a burnt mound with three possible troughs and two later metalworking furnace pits located on a gentle slope overlooking a small bog.

The natural topography of the site was an east-facing incline sloping down to a waterlogged peat bog immediately outside the road-take. Phase 1 consisted of a burnt mound or fulacht fiadh. The earliest features were three troughs (A–C) and an unassociated post-hole.

Trough A was roughly oval in plan, with concave unlined sides and an irregular flat base, a sharp break of slope at the top and gradual at the base, measuring 1.1m (north-south) by 1m and 0.15m in depth. This trough contained two stake-holes, located in the north-eastern side, 0.1m apart. Trough B was located roughly central to the burnt mound, subrectangular in plan, irregular U-shaped in profile and with a flat regular base, and measured 2.8m (north-west/southeast) by 1.1m and 0.6m in depth. Two opposing stake-holes were in the sides of the trough in the north-western half, 0.8m apart. Both stake-holes and trough were backfilled by fills of loose clay with ash, fire-cracked stone and silt containing burnt animal bone. Trough C was sub-oval in plan, with gently sloping sides and a flat base sloping to the east, and measured 2.3m (north-south) by 1.9m, 0.5m in depth. There were a number of fills and a deposit of hard redeposited natural clay sealed by burnt-mound material. An isolated post-hole was located 2.2m to the east of Trough C. All these features were sealed by the burnt mound, which was a large oval deposit spreading down the east-facing slope towards the boggy ground immediately outside the area of the road-take. The mound consisted of fire-cracked stone (predominantly sandstone) and charcoal-rich silt with animal bones and measured 15m (northwest/south-east) by 14.7m and 0.15–0.4m in depth.

Phase 1 was sealed by a layer of yellow/brown silty soil, similar to the subsoil, 0.23m in thickness. This layer was cut by Phase 2, which consisted of two burnt pits, interpreted as early medieval ironworking shaft furnaces, cut into silty layer and the burnt mound. The larger feature was located to the north and was circular in plan, with straight sides, sharp breaks of slope and a flat base. It measured 0.5m in diameter and 0.51m in depth. This contained a charcoal-rich matrix, 0.4m in thickness, overlain by a friable orange burnt clay fill with abundant slag and charcoal. A second pit was 0.1m to the south, also circular in plan, concave in profile and measured 0.35m in diameter and 0.2m in depth. This was interpreted as a possible tapping pit for the furnace. This furnace probably utilised bog iron from the adjacent peat bog, as evidence of large lumps of naturally formed pig iron were noted in the peat.

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