County: Meath Site name: Clonmahon/Spring Valley/Summerhill Demesne/Drunlargan/Garradice/Gallow/ Ferrans/Kilglin/Balfeaghan
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Aisling Collins, CRDS Ltd, Unit 4A, Dundrum Business Park, Dublin 14.
Site type: Multi-period
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 684180m, N 748587m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.480577, -6.731763
Pre-development testing was carried out along the route of the proposed R158 Summerhill to Kilcock road realignment in County Meath. The route extended from Summerhill to Kilcock in County Meath, crossing the townlands of Clonmahon, Spring Valley, Summerhill Demesne, Drunlargan, Garradice, Gallow, Ferrans, Kilglin and Balfeaghan. Centre-line testing of the site was carried out by a seven-person team between 2 January and 27 February 2007. In total 23,512m2 of centre-line trenching and offsets was completed. A total of 14.9% of the proposed road realignment area was tested. In addition to this a total of 1154 linear metres of trenches were excavated at the eleven archaeological sites (Sites 1, 2 and 10–18) and an area of 3002m2 was also stripped to survey an architectural heritage site (AH 20).
The development corridor extended along the existing R158 secondary road. Two monuments were in close proximity to the development corridor, ME043–037 and ME049–017, both a church and graveyard; neither will be directly impacted upon by the development. The majority of the development corridor extended across undeveloped greenfield areas adjacent to the existing road.
The archaeological deposits exposed consisted of a possible moated site, a possible ring-ditch, three archaeological sites of possible prehistoric date, three medieval settlement sites, two 19th-century gatelodge houses for Lord Langford’s house, ‘balloon’ houses, special features peculiar only to this area, and possibly a 19th- or 20th-century well. Full excavation was carried out on these sites by CRDS Ltd.
