County: Offaly Site name: CHURCHVIEW, TULLAMORE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 17:9 Licence number: 05E1198
Author: Eoin Sullivan, for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27, Merrion Square Dublin 2.
Site type: Habitation site
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 634553m, N 724856m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.272910, -7.481956
The development site is located on the south-east side of Tullamore town, along the Tullamore–
Portarlington road. The 28-acre greenfield site had permission for the construction of 233 houses and 88 apartments. Due to the extent of the development and the site containing a ‘habitation site’, all ground disturbance works required monitoring. The southern portion of the road was previously tested by Finn Delaney (Excavations 2004, No. 1428, 04E0065), to identify any remains of the habitation site. The testing concluded that nothing of archaeological significance was noted during the excavation of the test-trenches.
The area in which Tullamore is located was known in ancient times as Fear Ceall, which means either ‘men of the woods’ or ‘men of the churches’, perhaps attesting to the impressive monastic settlements around the environs of Tullamore. Tullamore in the 17th century consisted of a small village with a castle at the north-west of the present-day town. A major factor in the town development was the construction of the Grand Canal in 1798.
The monitoring of the removal of topsoil between September and December 2005 revealed that there were no features or soils of archaeological significance in the northern portion of the development. The southern portion of the site will be monitored when construction commences in 2006.
