County: Westmeath Site name: TE 2, TEMPLEORAN NORTH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E1093
Author: Laurence McGowan, 27 Lindenwood Park, Foyle Springs, Derry, for Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 640744m, N 739611m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.405069, -7.387259
This work was undertaken as part of a programme of testing ahead of the proposed realignment of the N6 Dublin-Galway carriageway. The site is one of sixteen sites of archaeological potential identified during the compilation of an EIS. It is situated on a raised and level platform in the southern part of an undulating field that is currently in pasture, at Chainage point 2650m on the proposed N52 realignment, which is being undertaken as part of the N6 improvement. The field is bordered to the south by an existing roadway. The land immediately to the north drops away, sloping steadily until it meets the existing N52 c. 300m away.
The site was identified during an aerial survey carried out by Markus Casey in 2002 and described as one of 'four possible features... Feature A... is a faint circular enclosure visible only from the air'. The platform on which the site is situated is roughly semicircular, with the ground to the north dropping away to wetter, boggier land. A central trench was excavated on a rough north-west/south-east orientation through the area identified in Casey's survey. In addition, a series of perpendicular offset trenches were opened running both to the north-east and south-west from this central trench. No evidence of archaeological activity was uncovered.
