Road

Archaeological monitoring (E003687) by R. Clutterbuck in 2008 and 2009 of a water scheme within and around the town of Athboy involved the excavation (excavations.ie 2008:937; 2009:631) of a corridor immediately outside the ENE-WSW town wall at the S side of the town where a magnetic gradiometer survey (07R0216) by I. Elliott (2008) had identified a number of anomalous features. For the most part these proved to be large pits (diam. up to 15m; D up to 1m) that are probably quarries for sand and gravel. Some of these could be medieval, but few artefacts were recovered from them. In Area 3 opposite the parish church (ME029-023003-) one pit contained fragments of a 13th -14th century stone window frame. Some of the pits were overlain by stone slabs forming an area of cobbling (dims 6.37m E-W; 2.5m N-S) bounded by a more regularly-set E-W path of stones (Wth 0.35m) on the N side while a drain was beneath it. This is probably the remnants of a medieval road running ENE-WSW outside the town wall. There was also a post-medieval N-S clay-bonded wall with two flush faces (L 7.75m plus; Wth 1.1m). The remains were preserved in situ beneath the pipe run and the re-established ground level. (Clutterbuck 2008) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload; 11 November 2021