2024:418 - Monksland Phase 2, Roscommon

A planning application is in the process of being lodged for the development of Phase 2 works at Monksland, Athlone, Co Roscommon, to consist of a mixture of two- and three-storey detached and semi-detached houses, including access roads, and associated services.
Phase 1 works, located adjoining the subject site, immediately to the north, was granted planning permission and works on this phase have commenced. As part of the process for obtaining permission on Phase 1, Roscommon County Council planners requested, by way of further information, that a phase of pre-development archaeological testing be undertaken on the site. In anticipation of a similar request being sought for Phase 2, it was proposed to test the site via a series of 11 machine-dug test trenches of varying lengths, but spaced at roughly 10m intervals across the footprint of the development, access roads and service lines. Fieldwork took place on 29 November 2024.
The assessment involved the excavation of eleven trenches within the site, each measuring 1.8m in width with a total of 479m of linear trenches excavated. The overwhelming evidence from the on-site investigations suggested that nothing of archaeological interest survived within the development area. This correlates with the results from Phase 1, where over 1km of test trenches were investigated with nothing of archaeological interest uncovered.
All of the Phase 2 trenches were excavated down to the natural subsoil that varied from light yellow-grey stony gravel sand to orange-brown loam clays. No archaeological features or deposits were identified within the excavated trenches and no finds were recovered.