County: Westmeath Site name: Garrycastle, Athlone
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WM029-025 (adjacent to) Licence number: 17E0266
Author: Aidan O’Connell
Site type: Tower-house, adjacent to
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 606951m, N 740894m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.418121, -7.895434
This green field site is located c. 2km due east of Athlone town centre on a site north of the Athlone Business and Technology Park. The area in question is about 1ha in size and roughly rectangular in shape. In the north-east of the site are the ruins of Garrycastle tower-house (WM029-025). The site is intended for industrial development. A comprehensive series of assessments comprising desktop study, geophysical survey and test trenching was undertaken to provide further information on the archaeological remains at the site and to inform any future planning decision.
The standing archaeological remains comprise the masonry structure of the castle and a possible associated earthwork at the north. Eight test trenches (540 linear metres) were opened by a 16t mechanical excavator fitted with a 2m-wide ditching bucket. The trenches were laid out with reference to the results of the geophysical survey in order to test anomalies/potential archaeological features recorded therein. Trenches 1, 6 and 7 were positioned adjacent to the standing remains of the tower-house in order to ascertain if archaeological features associated with this structure extend into the potential development lands.
Archaeological features recorded comprise 2 possible pits, a series of linear features and remains of a 19th-century settlement as depicted on early edition OS mapping. There does not appear to be evidence for late medieval land-division or agriculture at the south and south-west of the structural remains of the tower-house.
Archer Heritage Planning, 8 Beat Centre, Stephenstown, Balbriggan, Co. Dublin.
