2008:934 - Athboy River, Athboy, Meath

At the request of Nicholas O’Dwyer Consulting Engineers, acting on behalf of Meath County Council, Archaeology Underwater Surveys (trading under CRDS Ltd) has undertaken an assessment of the Athboy river crossing in advance of network pipe works for the bundled wastewater collection system for County Meath. The development will take place across the Athboy River in Townparks townland, adjacent to and immediately outside the south-east corner of the medieval walled town of Athboy. The construction methodology will consist of the construction of a network pipe trench across the river using a cut-and-cover method, with earthen bunding used to redirect the flow of the river during construction.
A visual, wade and metal-detection survey of the Athboy River took place where the proposed development crosses the river and 30m on either side of this crossing. The location where the network pipe crosses the river appears to have been adjacent to a ford of undetermined date; this ford appears to predate the metal bridge currently crossing the river. In addition, the town walls of Athboy may have come close to or adjacent to where the network point will cross the river, although no visible remains were identified adjacent to or in the river bank. The survey of the riverbed did not identify anything of archaeological significance and the riverbed appears to have been disturbed where a previous sewer pipe trench crossed. A number of metal-detection hits were made but no object of archaeological significance was recovered.