County: Westmeath Site name: Whitegates to Marina Building Athlone Shared Cycleway and Footway
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WM029-042092 Licence number: Ministerial Consent C000954 and Registration Nos. E005135 and R000524
Author: John Channing and Camilla Brännström
Site type: Cemetery
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 603820m, N 741830m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.426564, -7.942523
The project involved the construction of a 1.1km section of shared cycleway and footway between Whitegates on the R915 regional road and the Marina Building in Athlone town. Archaeological investigation was conducted by Camilla Brännström and monitoring by John Channing within the Abbey Graveyard (WM029-042092) and within the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital (former Athlone Union Workhouse Complex).
A small assemblage of disarticulated human bone was retrieved during monitoring, representing the remains of five individuals, together with a small number of artefacts (four iron nails, two post-medieval pottery sherds, a horseshoe, an iron pitchfork and three clay pipe bowl fragments). The finds assemblage dates to the nineteenth–early twentieth century. All human and faunal remains and archaeological objects were recovered from disturbed topsoil contexts.
Initial testing, conducted by Camilla Brännström (Phase 1) within the Abbey Graveyard, involved the hand-excavation of eight trenches along the proposed cycleway footprint. This was followed by the hand-excavation of the remaining proposed cycleway footprint (Phase 2). No in-situ human remains, graves or headstones were uncovered; however, fragments of human bone were found, and a segment of nineteenth-century graveyard boundary wall uncovered during Phase 2 was preserved in situ.
Testing within the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital comprised two machine-dug trenches (Trench A and Trench B) which were excavated along the footprint of the proposed new hospital boundary wall and cycleway respectively. Fragments of human bone were found in both trenches and a burial, which was subsequently preserved in-situ, was identified in Trench A at a depth of 0.7m. Short sections of Trench A were not excavated to their full depth or were left unexcavated due to the presence of crossing water mains to the hospital, ESB services, a pedestrian footpath, and the presence of the hospital ‘overflow’ carpark.
The Cycleway development incorporates the reduction in height of a portion of the existing boundary wall of St Vincent’s Hospital and the removal of an internal wall. These walls formed part of the original curtilage and an internal wall of the Athlone Union Workhouse complex – a group of Protected Structures. An architectural/built heritage survey and appropriate recording was undertaken and was reported separately.
c/o Archaeological Management Solutions Ltd, Fahy’s Road, Kilrush, Co. Clare
