County: Kildare Site name: BORD GÁIS ÉIREANN PIPELINE, OLD CURRAGH ROAD, KILDARE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 22:71, 23:59 Licence number: 05E1104
Author: Eoin Sullivan, for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 673434m, N 712121m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.154528, -6.902065
Monitoring took place of the Bord Gáis Éireann feeder pipe along the Old Curragh Road to link with the Kildare town supply. The feeder pipe (1.8km long) is located along the wayleave of the existing public road from the medieval walled town of Kildare to Newbridge (and the Curragh racecourse). The Curragh racecourse is located within a rich archaeological landscape, with many field monuments. The Curragh is an ancient grassland. The route of the proposed gas feeder pipe will pass through the constraint area of SMR 23:59, recorded as a small circular mound not considered to be of antiquity.
The installation of the feeder gas pipe required the excavation of a 480mm-wide open-cut trench along the northern side of the Old Curragh Road, to house the gas pipe at a depth of 1100mm. The mechanical excavation of the open-cut trench, located c. 2m north of the line of the Old Curragh road, was monitored between October and November 2005. No features or soils of archaeological significance were encountered during the construction of the feeder pipe.
