County: Westmeath Site name: STONEHOUSEFARM (1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A001/010
Author: Conor McDermott, Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit (IAWU), for Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Structure
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 633853m, N 734091m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.355952, -7.491470
The site was identified during testing on the N6 Kinnegad–Kilbeggan dual carriageway (04E0579, No. 1246, Excavations 2004) at Chainage 270 on the north side of a local road that is scheduled for realignment. It was located across the road from the gated entrance to a large 18th-century house called Bellmount. The site was an 18th-century stone structure with pits and a post-medieval field drain. The structure is depicted on the first-edition OS 6-inch map but was removed prior to the 1914 edition.
An area of 223m2 was mechanically stripped around the features and up to the field boundary along the road to expose the full extent of the site. The resolution strategy was to excavate sections through some of the features to augment the record obtained during testing. This included re-exposing the structure in full and excavating a 1m-wide section through the intact south-western wall and two suspected post-holes outside the wall to the south-west.
The wall foundations were rectangular, measuring 5.6 by 4.1m, and orientated northwest/south-east. They ranged from 0.5m to 0.7m wide and up to 0.14m deep. The south-eastern end wall consisted of mortar residue mixed with brick and some slate and partly overlay a deposit of plastic mid-brown clay with some charcoal flecking (F405). The wall appeared to terminate at a doorway at the north-eastern corner; on excavation, however, this gap was shown to be a product of the centre-line testing. The south-western wall was constructed mainly of a single course of crudely dressed, sub-rounded stones bonded in lime mortar with fragments of roofing slate. The north-western end wall survived as a single course of stone bonded with mortar. The north-eastern wall was building demolition, mainly of mortar, brick and slate.
Abutting, and partially underlying, the wall in the southern corner of the structure was the deposit F405. It continued along the south-western wall for a distance of 2.7m and along the south-eastern for 2.1m. Two shallow pits were located 1.95m apart, 0.9m outside the south-western wall. They related to the demolition of the structure.
A wide variety of finds was recovered during the cleaning of the walls, including post-medieval pottery, brick, clay pipes, glass, modern pottery and nails. During testing a dump of modern rubble was noted along the road boundary 1.3m south of the structure that may also be related to clearance and draining of the site. There was no evidence of a hearth in the structure and it was interpreted as a farm/garden building associated with the demesne on the other side of the road.
Unit 6, Dundrum Business Park, Dublin 12
