Digging works uncover cobble lock street surface

As the Mullingar town centre enhancement continues, a further little insight into Mullingar’s past infrastructure has come to light.

Right outside the door of the Bank of Ireland building, the machinery has today, Thursday, uncovered a portion of a previous street surface, formed from cobble lock.

However, reveals supervising archaeologist Gerry O’Dwyer, the surface is probably not immensely old: “It’s probably the street that was here before they put the asphalt on,” he says, estimating that the asphalting may have been done in the 1950s or 1960s.

The roadworks have thrown up little of archaeological interest, Mr O’Dwyer says. While the public may have expected odd coins, for example, to emerge during the digging, to date there has been little to get excited about: “It is a surprise,” concedes Mr O’Dwyer going on to joke that they must have been “very tidy people” in Mullingar.