County: Westmeath Site name: Athlone Castle, Athlone
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WM029-042002, National Monument No. 520 Licence number: Ministerial Consent C000505ext.; E004398
Author: Melanie McQuade
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 603801m, N 741443m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.423455, -7.942788
Two test pits were hand-dug in order to locate a leak in a pipe running within the castle grounds. Test pit 1 (2.5m x 1.7m) was excavated immediately to the west of the low wall located to the west of the lower battlement (and east of the new doorway to the visitor centre). Test pit 2 (0.8m x 0.65m) was excavated c. 2m to the south-west of the utilities building. The north-east/south-west running pipe, which had been installed in the 1990s, was exposed 0.45m below present ground surface. A small (0.3m wide) area of fill exposed along the northern face of the low wall footing in Test pit 1 was probably deposited at the time the wall was reconstructed. No archaeological deposits or finds were exposed during the works.
Westmeath County Council, Mount Street, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath
