County: Roscommon Site name: Rathpeak
Sites and Monuments Record No.: - Licence number: A034, E2827
Author: Bruce Sutton, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd, Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny.
Site type: Early modern field wall remnants
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 591479m, N 730927m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.328532, -8.127904
Archaeological assessment on the proposed route of the N6 Ballinasloe to Athlone road scheme involved targeted test excavation of selected areas lying within the proposed road-take. Work was commissioned by Galway County Council and the National Roads Design Office and sponsored by the National Roads Authority. Testing here was of a linear feature (possible road) which is to be destroyed during the course of the construction.
Ten test-pits, each measuring 1m by 1m, were excavated at specific locations along a north-west/south-east-orientated ridge (0.5m high, 0.3m wide and 45m long) associated with a possible trackway to the west (see No. 1749 below, E2834). The test-pits were targeted to investigate noticeable rises, depressions and the base, sides and top of the prominent ridge. Seven of the test-pits, located at the possible rises and depressions along the ridge, revealed nothing of an archaeological nature. Three test-pits (2, 5 and 7) revealed the remnants of an old field wall which forms the ridge. This wall is visible on the first-edition OS map for the area (1851) and was represented at that time as a tree-lined field wall within the confines of the Rathpeak Estate and associated with the nearby avenue to Rathpeak House (E2834).
