Meath Countywide Water Conservation Project

Excavation Licence no. 12E0096, 2012

Archaeological monitoring was conducted during the digging of engineer’s test pits for Phase 2 of the Meath Countywide Water Conservation Project. Judith Carroll and Company Ltd was contracted by Grontmij Ltd on behalf of Meath County Council to conduct the archaeological monitoring of the groundworks. A desktop assessment report was also commissioned prior to the archaeological monitoring and an archaeological historical background study was provided by this company.

The archaeological monitoring was carried out by this company between April 16 and June 20 2012 by Judith Carroll and Kenneth Wiggins. The area covered by this scheme included several Meath towns of medieval or earlier date, extending into the early modern and modern periods. These were Kells, Slane, Navan Trim, Oldcastle, Athboy, Duleek, Ratoath, Mornington and Laytown and their environs in most cases. The scheme also included smaller areas such as Fennor and Kilcarn which were of importance during the early medieval to early modern periods. The pipeline is planned to run through the centres and outskirts of the above locations, in many cases, in areas of high archaeological potential. The test trenching to examine soil and water quality for the scheme took place along these routes. A licence, 12E0096, was issued for the archaeological monitoring of the scheme in general, while a Ministerial Consent was issued for works within the constraint zone of Kells.

Most of the work consisted of the digging of test trenches 0.8m to 1m in width and two metres in length, though this was occasionally extended when the trench impacted on an existing service, etc. The archaeology revealed a small number of features and the maps at the end of the report outline areas in which archaeological test trenching is recommended prior to the commencement of the pipeline scheme.

Recommendations for trial testing for the Meath Countywide Water Conservation Project Watermains Rehabilitation Phase 2 were given in this report. It was also recommended that should there be any changes to the layout of the pipeline scheme, particularly in the historic urban area (within the constraints zones seen on the archaeological maps), these should be considered in the proposal for trial trenching by the archaeologist applying for licence or consents.