County: Westmeath Site name: Davidstown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WM018-031 Licence number: 20E0413
Author: John Kavanagh
Site type: Adjacent to enclosure
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 630704m, N 755642m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.549805, -7.536677
An archaeological assessment was carried out as part of a pre-planning investigation for a development in Davidstown, County Westmeath. The proposed development will consist of a storey and a half-style dwelling house, including a waste-water treatment system with percolation and all ancillary site development works. The development site is located within the ruins of an early 19th-century farmstead complex consisting of several ruined buildings surrounded by a boundary wall with associated field systems enclosed by low stone walls.
A JCB fitted with a flat grading bucket was used to excavate 2 trenches within the enclosed yard area which measured 35m x 30m.
Trench 1 - NAS
Trench 2 - This trench was excavated to a depth of 0.75m at the north-west end. Approximately 6.8m from the north-west end of the trench, a single base course of a possible wall was uncovered 0.35m below the surface. The feature was aligned north-east/south-west and had a width of between 0.8–1m. Medium-sized limestone was set into the natural clay presenting a clearly defined edge on north-west side. The south-east side was obscured by collapsed rubble which was left in situ. A compact metaled surface, small areas of broken up cobbling and building rubble, was found extending for 3.5m from the base of the wall facing south-east. 19th- and 20th-century pottery fragments and a corroded iron padlock were found embedded in the surface. (Local sources stated that a cobbled path once extended into the enclosed yard from the main 19th-century house.)
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