County: Westmeath Site name: River Shannon, Athlone
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E1350
Author: Kieran Campbell, 6 St Ultan’s, Laytown, Co. Meath.
Site type: Riverbank monitoring
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 603631m, N 741955m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.427691, -7.945363
Monitoring of trench excavations on the banks of the River Shannon took place on 4 April 2006 during the laying of an ESB cable across the river, upstream of the railway bridge and immediately outside the archaeological zone of Athlone town (townlands Athlone, Co. Westmeath, and Ranelagh, Co. Roscommon). The monitoring followed from pre-development assessment and geophysical surveys carried out by Donal Boland and Ciara Herron. The trenches, 1m wide and 8–12m long, on both sides of the river were excavated through topsoil and redeposited soil of 20th-century date without exposing the natural riverbed.
