PRELIMINARY & FINAL REPORT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS E2727 A001/042 CORNAHER 3.2 N6 TO CO. WESTMEATH

VALERIE J. KEELEY Ltd ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONSULTANCY JULY 2007

PRELIMINARY & FINAL REPORT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATION E2727 A001/042 CORNAHER 3.2 N6 KILBEGGAN TO KINNEGAD CO. WESTMEATH

Valerie J. Keeley Ltd Archaeological Consultancy July 2007

PRELIMINARY & FINAL REPORT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATION E2727 A001/042 CORNAHER 3.2 N6 KILBEGGAN TO KINNEGAD CO. WESTMEATH

Project Director: Valerie J. Keeley. Senior Archaeologist: Ros Ó’Maoldúin Site Director: Liam Mckinstry

CONTENTS

SUMMARY

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF PLATES

1.0 INTRODUCTION 1

2.0 PROJECT BACKGROUND 1

3.0 SITE DESCRIPTION 1 3.1 GEOGRAPHICAL 3.2 ENVIRONMENTAL 3.3 CULTURAL

4.0 THE EXCAVATION 3

5.0 THE ARTEFACTUAL ASSEMBLAGE 3

6.0 THE AERIAL SURVEY 3

7.0 DISCUSSION 3

8.0 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4

APPENDIX A ARCHIVE LIST

SUMMARY

This report comprises the preliminary and final results of the archaeological excavation of site 3.2, Cornaher Townland, Co. Westmeath. This excavation was undertaken as part of the archaeological programme for the N6 Kilbeggan to Kinnegad road scheme. It was conducted by Liam McKinstry, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd. on behalf of Westmeath Co. Council, in accordance with the ministerial direction A001 by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and in consultation with the National Museum of . For recording purposes, this excavation was allocated the number A001/042 and work number E2727. It was undertaken from January 27th to February 7th, 2005.

A potential feature described as a charcoal spread was labelled as F19 in the testing report compiled by CRDS Ltd. On excavation there were no archaeological features or artefacts identified within site Cornaher 3.2, A001/042.

This archaeological excavation was conducted by Valerie J. Keeley Ltd., on behalf of Westmeath County Council and was funded by the National Roads authority, in advance of the new N6 Kinnegad to Kilbeggan.

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Discovery location map. Figure 2 Site location map.

LIST OF PLATES

Plate 1 A general shot of the site

N6 Kilbeggan to Kinnegad Preliminary & Final Report Cornaher 3.2 E2727 A001/042 Liam Mckinstry

1.0 INTRODUCTION

This report presents the results of the archaeological excavation of Site 3.2 in the Townland of Cornaher carried out in advance of the proposed N6 Kinnegad to Kilbeggan Dual carriageway between the townlands of Kilbeggan and Tyrellspass in and on the line of all associated link roads and country roads.

The site is located in the Townland of Cornaher, at Chainage 34740 (N.G.R 238702/234649).

2.0 PROJECT BACKGROUND

Valerie J. Keeley Ltd. was appointed to undertake the resolution of 59 archaeological sites identified as a result of archaeological test trenching carried out by Conor McDermot of the Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit under licence (ref.: 04E0879) on behalf of C.R.D.S. Ltd. (O’Connor et al 2004).

3.0 SITE DESCRIPTION

3.1 Geographical The site was located within an area of relatively flat bogland around which were a number of medium to large sized steep glacial drumlins and eskers. The site itself was situated on a slightly higher piece of ground and was consequently not as boggy.

3.2 Environmental The site is situated on the edge of a partially wetlands area. Much of the surrounding land has deep modern cut drainage ditches running throughout in an attempt to make the land agriculturally viable, but only with regards to livestock farming.

1 N6 Kilbeggan to Kinnegad Preliminary & Final Report Cornaher 3.2 E2727 A001/042 Liam Mckinstry

3.3 Cultural

The Townland of Cornaher was situated within the parish of Newtown and was also part of the of . It is known in Irish as Cór an Aithir translated as ‘fathers division’ or Cor Na hIthire meaning ‘a division of arable land The Townland was listed in the Civil Survey of Ireland, 1654-6 (R.C. Simmington, 1953). The historical evidence seems to indicate that the Townland, or at least the name of the Townland, would date from the post medieval period at the earliest. Possibly the wetland nature of most of the county would discourage intensive occupation on anything other than high ground until land drainage became a practicable option in the 17th or 18th centuries. In 1837 it contained c.666 acres part of which was of bog, arable and tillage land. Cornaher demesne is located to the north with Cornaher house (O’Donovan, 1837). A battle is said to have taken place at Cornaher in 468AD between the O’Dooleys the ruling clan of in the fifth century, and the decendents of Niall of the Nine hostages and the ruling Kings of (Egan,Oliver, 1986). There are no archaeological sites recorded in the Record of Monuments and Places for this townland and no archaeological finds recovered. However recent archaeological work carried out by the IAWU has uncovered a total of eight archaeological sites in part of Toar bog within this townland. They have been classified as pieces of worked or unworked wood in situ. “These site types consist of less than ten pieces of wood which show evidence of having been worked or placed in the bog but have no apparent function” (McDermott C. IAWU, 2000). They are of unknown date. Two areas of archaeological potential were identified in the line of the N6 proposed route. They include an area of forestry (field 285) and the area around Cornaher Lough (field 271). A vernacular building (CHS 94) was also identified within the roadtake and is marked on the first edition OS map, 1837.There are also five other buildings marked on the first edition map, which the road may pass over and are located in field nos. 284 and 285 at chainage 26400.000.

(Extracts of Historical Background in CRDS tesing report 2004- After Orlaith Eagan 2004)

The site at the time of excavation had no known culturally important features associated with it.

2 N6 Kilbeggan to Kinnegad Preliminary & Final Report Cornaher 3.2 E2727 A001/042 Liam Mckinstry

4.0 THE EXCAVATION The site was cleared by hand and all possible features of note were excavated. None of these features however proved to be archaeological in nature they all proved to be layers of residual peat or modern agricultural disturbance.

5.0 THE ARTEFACTUAL ASSEMBLAGE No artefacts were recovered.

6.0 THE AERIAL SURVEY There was no aerial survey carried out for this site.

7.0 DISCUSSION The site was non archaeological in nature.

8.0 ONGOING WORK FOR THE FINAL REPORT The site has been resolved and no further work will be required. This report constitutes both the preliminary and final report for this site.

3 N6 Kilbeggan to Kinnegad Preliminary & Final Report Cornaher 3.2 E2727 A001/042 Liam Mckinstry

9.0 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The following people worked on the excavation of this site.

On site excavation team: Supervisor Aaron Johnston Site Assistants Toril Bergsvick, Alan Dixon, Michael Chosson, Delphine Raury, Vincent Mougin and Debbie Doran

General Operatives Cyril Danilenkoff and Sylvain Daubigney

Post excavation Phase Supervisors Aaron Johnston and Steve Balfe. Site assistant Alan Dixon.

4

PLATES

Plate 1: General shot of the site

APPENDIX A – ARCHIVE LIST

Record type Number Drawings 0 Context sheets 0 Photographs 5 Notebooks 1 Registers 0

Site A001/032

Site A001/029 Site A001/024

Site A001/021 Site A001/047 Site A001/050 Site A001/015

Site A001/053 Site A001/026 Site A001/052 Site A001/014 Site A001/075 Site A001/016 Site A001/049 Site A001/051

Title Notes Job/Exc No. Compiled by CAD reference Client E2727 A001/042 Location map 1112-04-400 A.Burke A001/042 Figure 1 Westmeath County Council Date Scale Drawing No. Project Brehon House Tel: (+353) 056 4440236 Castlecomer Fax: (+353) 056 4440237 24 July 07 1:35000 Figure 1 N6 Kinnegad-Kilbeggan Co. Kilkenny. email: [email protected] Site A001/021

A001/026

Title Notes Job/Exc No. Compiled by CAD reference Client E2727 A001/042 OS base map showing site and route 1112-04-400 A.Burke A001/042 Figure 2 Westmeath County Council location Date Scale Drawing No. Project Brehon House Tel: (+353) 056 4440236 Castlecomer Fax: (+353) 056 4440237 25 July 07 1:10000 Figure 2 N6 Kinnegad-Kilbeggan Co. Kilkenny. email: [email protected]