County: Laois Site name: R420, HOPE’S BRIDGE REALIGNMENT, KILMULLIN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 09E0245
Author: Antoine Giacometti, ArchTech Ltd, 32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 659247m, N 710813m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.144541, -7.114395
Monitoring was undertaken during the realignment of the R420 road at Kilcullen, Co. Laois. The portion of road which required realignment comprised a couple of hundred metres on either side of Hope’s Railway Bridge, a masonry-arched bridge constructed in 1847 carrying the R420 road over the Dublin–Cork railway line. The present circuitous route of the road at this point is to be straightened, with a new road-overrailway bridge constructed to the south-west of Hope’s Bridge. This follows a similar line to the original road prior to the construction of the railway.
Most of the monitoring work has now been completed, and the small portion remaining is unlikely to have archaeological material. No significant archaeological material was identified. The route of the original (pre-1840s) R420 road was identified. Although this road is likely to date to the medieval period, when it may have served Lea Castle, no medieval remains were found. Instead, the results of the monitoring programme indicated that the ditch defining the original course of the road had been completely cleaned out during the railway works of c. 1847, when it was reused as a drain during the construction works.
