County: Westmeath Site name: Castlepollard Community College, Castlepollard, Kinturk Demesne
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: 23E0578
Author: Maeve McCormick
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 645920m, N 769640m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.674480, -7.305021
Test excavation was undertaken on 20 July 2023 at a school site at Castlepollard, Kinturk Demesne, Co. Westmeath in advance of a proposed upgrade and expansion of the school facilities.
Four of the six proposed trenches were excavated resulting in a total of 117 linear metres. Trench 1 and Trench 2 could not be excavated. Trench 3 and 4 were merged into one long trench. Trench 5 was excavated to a depth of 2.5m in the southernmost end of the trench. Trench 6 was excavated to depth of 1.25m across the trench in order to ensure the spoil heap continued as expected.
The north of the site had already been landscaped and partially developed in the last year. The central trenches revealed a landscaping layer lying above an original topsoil layer. This landscaping would have been part of the original landscaping associated with the primary construction of the school.
Finally, the south-eastern corner of the site in which Trenches 5 and 6 were located, was covered in a thick spoil heap of redeposited natural (0.7-1.2m deep) redeposited from the works to the north of the site. It was established that in this area the natural subsoil sloped from north to south and had been levelled by landscaping layer C7 (>1.5m deep). All works in Trench 6 terminated at the surface of C7.
Nothing of archaeological significance was recorded during the test excavation.
Archer Heritage Planning, Unit 1, Tenure Business Park, Co Louth A92 K2VF
