County: Offaly Site name: Durrow
Sites and Monuments Record No.: OF009–005 Licence number: C002 ext.; E3161
Author: Tracy Collins, Aegis Archaeology Ltd, 32 Nicholas St, King’s Island, Limerick.
Site type: Monitoring
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 631919m, N 730839m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.326848, -7.520855
Monitoring was undertaken at Durrow as part of the ongoing conservation works at the national monument on behalf of the OPW. A new electricity supply was accommodated in a trench which was dug from an existing ESB pole to the north of Durrow Abbey House to the church in the graveyard at Durrow. This trench was approximately 300m in length. It was 0.6m wide and 0.9m in depth. It was dug with a mini-digger under supervision. The route of the pipe trench followed an old track which skirted around Durrow Abbey House, from north-west to north-east. The stratigraphy in this section of the trench exposed the fill of the trackway resting on the red/brown boulder clay natural parent material. The trench then changed course and ran southwards through an area of trees to the boundary wall of Durrow church, where it connected with a previously dug trench (Excavations 2006, No. 1691; Excavations 2007, No. 1459). The stratigraphy here was entirely natural. Two ESB poles were also erected to the north of the church for the new supply.
Despite the fact that the trench was located within the zone of potential for the early ecclesiastical complex at Durrow, nothing of an archaeological nature was revealed during the monitoring.
