County: Westmeath Site name: Abbey Graveyard and St Vincent’s Hospital, Abbey Road, Athlone
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WM029-042; WM029-04200; WM029-042092; WM029-042050 Licence number: E5005135; Ministerial Consent C000954, Detection Reg. No. R000524
Author: Camilla Brannstrom
Site type: Archaeological objects
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 603820m, N 741830m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.426564, -7.942523
A metal detection survey was carried out as part of Stage (i) Test Excavations and Survey Services in two areas within the lands available for the proposed ‘Whitegates to Marina Building Athlone Shared Cycleway and Footway’ scheme. The findings of the archaeological testing, carried out under Ministerial Consent C000954 and Reg. No. E005135, are recorded separately (Excavations Bulletin No. 2020:153).
The two subject areas were located adjacent to each other in the town of Athlone within the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital (the former Athlone Union Workhouse complex) and the Abbey Graveyard (WM029-042092), respectively. The latter site contains the extant remains of a seventeenth-century Franciscan Friary building (WM029-042001).
The testing programme was carried out in two phases, with Phase 1 comprising the hand excavation of eight test trenches to a depth of 0.25m within the Abbey Graveyard, covering a total area of 8m2. Phase 2 comprised the hand excavation of the remainder of the cycleway footprint in the Abbey Graveyard for a total length of 87.5m, a width of 0.9–2.9m and a depth of 0.25m, covering a total area of 116m2.
Works within the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital consisted of two machine-dug test trenches (Trench A and Trench B), which represented the footprint of a new hospital boundary wall and cycleway pavement, respectively. Trench A measured 86m x 1.2m with a depth of between 0.6–0.7m, while Trench B measured 123m x 3.1m with a depth of between 0.3–0.5m. Both trenches were largely excavated through modern deposits.
All soils and sod excavated from the test trenches were subject to metal detection using a Fisher F22 Research Labs 7.69khz detection device. The discrimination settings on the metal detector were set to ‘All Metal’.
The systematic metal detection survey retrieved a total of four iron nails, tentatively interpreted as coffin nails, from the excavated spoil of the Phase 1 and 2 test trenches within the Abbey Graveyard and Trench A within the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital respectively. Three nails were recovered from the Abbey Graveyard and one from Trench A within the former Athlone Union Workhouse complex.
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