County: Westmeath Site name: Castletown Geoghegan
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 07E1007
Author: David J. O’Connor, CRDS Ltd, Unit 4a, Dundrum Business Park, Dublin 14.
Site type: Various
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 633943m, N 744024m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.445208, -7.489050
The development consists of the provision of sewerage treatment facilities in Castletown Geoghegan, located in an area dominated by drumlin topography. This involves the construction of a network of pipes around the village as well as a treatment works site and pumping station, located on the periphery. The immediate area is of gently undulating fields, primarily in pasture. The village itself sits on top of a low ridge and overlooks land to the south, east and west.
During the course of monitoring five archaeological sites were uncovered. Limited excavation took place at three of these sites, while the remaining two sites were avoided by the development and have been preserved in situ.
The sites uncovered consisted of two burnt mounds, a wooden trackway (radiocarbon-dated to 2860–2480 bc) found in a section of peat, the foundation wall of a substantial stone building in the centre of the village (preserved in situ) and an unknown site consisting of stone-revetted ditches, which appears to have been bisected by a recent realignment of a small river (also preserved in situ).
