2017:429 - Athlone Main Drainage, Westmeath

Monitoring of site investigations relating to the Athlone Main Drainage scheme was undertaken in June and October 2017. Investigations associated with the project were previously undertaken in 2010 (License 10E186) and 2016 (License 10E186 Extension). In June 2017 monitoring of four slit trenches was undertaken at two separate locations - Quay Road and Paynes Lane. In October 2017 monitoring of a further four slit trenches was undertaken on HSE Grounds to the east of Coosan Road/Abbey Road.
Monitoring of slit trenches on Quay Road uncovered wall fragments beneath the existing cobbledock surface adjacent to the river bank and a further wall under the roadway adjacent to the river. An examination of the cartographic sources indicated that the area is located south of the 16th-century bridge which spanned the Shannon and was replaced by the current structure in 1844. The 16th-century bridge structure’s design facilitated a large fall of water which was used from this time to drive mills which are recorded at either end of the bridge from the 16th century onwards. The first edition Ordnance Survey map confirms that the location of mills on the bridge end continued until the 19th century with a number of mill structures recorded at either side of the bridge. The map also indicates a number of structures further south. It seems likely that all of these structures were levelled as part of the 1844 bridge construction project and the river currently flows over them. It is possible that the wall features located in the course of site investigations are remnants of buildings/structures also levelled at this time.
Site investigations at Paynes Lane, on the east side of the town of Athlone, were located outside the walled town. Two trenches were excavated on either end of the north-south running laneway. The lane is indicated on the first edition map as connecting the area of Golden Island with Irishtown and in the 19th century had long narrow plots of land on either side that ran southwards from the houses facing onto Irishtown. A wall feature was uncovered on the eastern side of both trenches. In both trenches the wall was 0.5-0.6m wide and it may represent a former boundary that ran north-south. Its form and structure would suggest that it is post-medieval in date and possibly dates from the 18th/19th century.
Site investigations in the grounds of St Vincent’s hospital in October 2017 involved the excavation of four slit trenches inside the boundary wall of the property fronting onto Abbey Street/Coosan Road (ITM 603775 741872). St Vincent’s hospital occupies the site of the 19th-century Athlone Union Workhouse. Trenches 11.4 and 11.5 were located in the north-west corner of the workhouse complex. A single inhumation was uncovered in both trenches. The skeleton remains were concentrated in the south-west end of the trenches, close to the boundary wall, at a depth of 0.75-0.9m below the current ground level. It seems likely that these burials are associated with the Workhouse Complex formerly operating at this location and more particularly with the former Fever Hospital building, located a short distance to the east. The burial in trench 11.4 had previously been disturbed by a service pipe while occasional disarticulated bone in the north-east end of the trench suggests further disturbance. The inhumations were recorded, covered and the trenches backfilled.

Trenches 11.6 and 11.7 were located to the south of the entrance-way to the hospital and in close proximity to both the former workhouse complex and the Ecclesiastical remains (WH029:42050), Franciscian friary (WH029:042001) and graveyard (WH029:42092). Nothing of archaeological significance was encountered in either of these trenches with the stratigraphy indicating modern layers above natural.

Old Church Street, Athenry, County Galway