Mullingar Sewerage Improvement Scheme

The Anglo-Norman town of Mullingar has been afforded Record of Monuments and Places status and has a zone of archaeological potential within which are located a number of recorded archaeological sites. The sewerage improvement scheme runs through this zone of archaeological potential on entering the Town Park and exits on leaving Buckley's Supervalu Car Park. Although not directly impacting on any known archaeological sites it was not possible to ensure that sites would not be revealed during the early stages of construction. To prevent this, Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd. were employed as Archaeologist for the duration of the contract to monitor the soil-stripping phase for all the outlying pipeline routes that run through greenfield areas in advance of the pipeline construction. Such monitoring ensured that chance discovery of isolated (stray) finds would be dealt with in a manner to preserve our heritage.

Monitoring also took place during excavation of the pipeline through zones of potential Archaeology. Should archaeological monitoring uncover any archaeological soils, deposits etc. then the archaeologist would have advised the National Monuments Section of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (formerly Dúchas). Provisions were made to allow for and fund any archaeological work needed in the event of a significant find.