County: Laois Site name: OLDTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A015/26
Author: Tara O’Neill, for Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 633805m, N 672894m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.805981, -7.498627
Monitoring of topsoil-stripping was carried out in advance of the proposed M7 Portlaoise–Castletown/M8 Portlaoise–Cullahill motorway scheme between February and June 2005. The work was carried out on behalf of Laois County Council and the National Roads Authority. The section described in this report is Testing Area 14 of Contract 1. Contract 1 of the project incorporated the Portlaoise–Cullahill section of the scheme, consisting of c. 14km of motorway, which extends from Aghaboe to south of Cullahill through the townlands from Gortnaclea to Oldtown. Testing Area 14 was located to the west of the N8 Cork–Dublin road. It was located between Chainage 10460 and 10250 of the proposed scheme.
A geophysical survey (02R068) of a portion of Testing Area 14 was undertaken by Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd on behalf of ARUP Consulting Engineers. A broad area of settlement activity was recorded over Testing Areas 13 and 14. It comprised three circular enclosures, a double ditched enclosure, a possible enclosure and associated field systems. As a result, Testing Area 14 was stripped of topsoil to ensure that any archaeological remains present would be detected. However, no archaeological features were exposed on this site.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
