County: Laois Site name: Mountrath Link Road Interconnection & Ballyfin Road, Mountrath
Sites and Monuments Record No.: LA017-033005 Licence number: 23E0492
Author: Graham Hull
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 635230m, N 694515m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.000194, -7.475155
Archaeological monitoring of open-cut trench pipe laying was proposed for elements of the Mountrath Link Road Interconnection and Ballyfin Road Water Rehabilitation Schemes. Monitoring was proposed for the parts of the scheme that lay within the Zone of Notification for the Recorded Monument of Mountrath town (LA017-033), i.e. the entirety of the Mountrath Link Road project and the southern end of the Ballyfin Road project.
Two sections of the pipe laying were monitored on the Ballyfin Road, on Factory Street and to the west of St Peter’s Church on Church Street, adjacent to burial ground LA017-033005. No archaeological deposits or artefacts were observed.
Unfortunately, due to an oversight on the part of the contractor, the archaeologists were not informed when works were taking place and the entire Mountrath Link Road Interconnection project was constructed without archaeological monitoring. Photographs of some of the works were provided by the contractor. In the areas visible in the photographs road surface appears to overlie natural yellowish-orange glacial till and no archaeological features can be seen. However without concurrent archaeological monitoring it is impossible to state if any archaeological impact was made by these works.
TVAS (Ireland) Ltd Ahish, Ballinruan, Crusheen, Co. Clare
