County: Offaly Site name: Seefin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 19E0076
Author: Ruth Elliott
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 606849m, N 703994m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.086500, -7.897762
Murphy International Ltd. were appointed main contractor for improvement works to the Birr Water Supply Scheme undertaken by Irish Water. Works included upgrading the water treatment plant at Seefin in Birr, Co. Offaly. Archaeological monitoring was a condition of planning permission (16/145 and 16/433) further to an archaeological screening report (John Cronin & Associates, 2016) which concluded the site was of moderate archaeological potential.
The existing water treatment plant was approximately 1 hectare in area and located 1km south-east of Birr town. In local authority ownership, this was bound by agricultural land to the east and residential housing on north, west and south. The plant was constructed in 1975 in the location of ‘filter beds’ and a ‘gravel pit’ shown on the 25” Ordnance Survey map (1888 to 1913). The ground level of the site was lowered during the 1975 construction, creating a dish-like effect, rising steeply on all sides of the plant.
Monitoring was carried out between 11 February and 13 March 2019. Site stratigraphy reflected the site’s use as a gravel pit and also the more recent ground reduction. Natural gravels were the basal strata across the site, overlain (where it survived) by subsoil and a thin layer of topsoil on the landscaped grass verges. The remains of the gravel pit had been infilled with modern deposits found to contain fragments of post-medieval sewer pipe in addition to concrete, plastic and metal. Subsoil survived between 15m and 20m from the eastern boundary of the site, sloping steeply upwards towards the east, indicating the edge of the former gravel pit. A raised area adjacent to the eastern site boundary survived at its original level and was surface stripped prior to ground reduction. No archaeological finds or features were uncovered within the area. There was no potential for survival of archaeological material elsewhere on the site as the evidence for ground reduction of at least 0.5m into natural strata was conclusive.
Murphy International Limited, Great Connell, Newbridge, Co. Kildare, W12 HD61
