2010:529 - MORNINGTON RIVER, Meath

Continued from 2009 (Excavations 2009, No. 652), monitoring took place intermittently during the construction of flood defences on the Mornington River certified drainage scheme by the Office of Public Works. Between April and August, topsoil was stripped for the installation of a flood bank for 1.5km along the eastern bank of the river at the southern end of the scheme, passing adjacent to the Neolithic and Bronze Age site excavated by Antoine Giacometti, Arch-Tech Ltd, in Donacarney Great townland on the west bank in 2009–10 (see No. 517 above). Elsewhere, where space was constricted, concrete walls were built in sections requiring the excavation of foundation trenches measuring 6m by 3m and c. 1.2m deep. The excavations generally exposed natural sand under modern fill resulting from housing developments in the area since the 1970s. Thin peaty soil, c. 0.1m thick, was present in places over the sand. A small two-arched bridge, completely overgrown and omitted from the EIS for the scheme, was identified as a bridge shown on mid-18th-century maps and which formerly carried a lane from Mornington House, also known as Coney Hall, to the sea. Coney Hall was part of the estate of Garret Wellesley or Wesley, First Earl of Mornington, whose principal seat was Dangan Castle near Trim. The house, dating to 1740–50, was destroyed by fire in c. 1955. The bridge, probably of the same date, was scheduled for removal but is now to be retained at the request of the Architectural Heritage Advisory Unit, DEHLG, and the Conservation Officer of Meath County Council.