County: Westmeath Site name: MONGANSTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A001/002
Author: John Lehane, Eachtra Archaeological Projects, Ballycurreen Industrial Estate, Kinsale Road, Cork.
Site type: Post-medieval field system
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 656938m, N 744740m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.449658, -7.142812
Excavations were undertaken in advance of realignment of the N6, between Kinnegad and Kilbeggan, Co. Westmeath, in 2004 (Excavations 2004, No. 1748, 04E0908). Monganstown 2 was located 2.5km west of Kinnegad town, near the eastern end of the scheme.
The site comprised a raised bank (generally aligned north-west/south-east) and a single pit. There was no indication that these features were related. Nine trenches were excavated to determine the archaeological significance of the bank. The morphology of the bank remained unchanged in all the trenches and no ditch accompanied it at any stage. The bank extended for 320m within the proposed road and appeared to continue for at least 1km beyond the road-take; it varied in height from 0.7–1.2m. The bank was curving in nature, following the break of slope between the flood-plain of the Kinnegad River and the drier ground to the north. It was probably the remains of a field boundary system that pre-dates the existing system.
An isolated pit of unknown purpose and date was uncovered in one of the trenches excavated across the bank. It was subcircular, measuring 0.31m east–west by 0.26m and 0.12m in depth; it had two fills, one of which was charcoal-rich. No other diagnostic material was retrieved from this pit.
