TreeAlive
‹ Sites and Monuments Record, Ireland

Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Ballyvaghan, County Clare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Ballyvaghan, County Clare, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Ballyvaghan
County
Clare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Ballyvaghan Forts
Latest-edition OS map
Ballyvaghan Forts (1915)
Coordinates
53.11774, -9.14968
SMR number
CL002-052----

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1753 map "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1753 · Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Get directions ↗

This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

On a level crest at the N end of a low rise, with meadowland falling gently away to S and more steeply to W, c. 60m E of the tidal inlet at Ballyvaghan. Hachured as a circular enclosure and named, along with a neighbouring cashel (CL002-050----) and enclosure (CL002-054----) as ‘Ballyvaghan Forts’ on the 1842 ed. of the 6-inch OS map and hachured as a subrectangular enclosure on the 1915 ed. Listed as ‘Enclosure’ in the SMR (1992) and the RMP (1996). A poorly preserved and overgrown rectangular cashel (35m NE–SW; 29m NW–SE, crest to crest) defined by a wide, denuded, flat-topped bank (Wth at base 3.9–5.4m; Wth on top 1–2m; H 0.3–1.1m) of mixed earth and stone with inner facing-stones visible along the NW side. The field surrounding this fort was the subject of a magnetic gradiometer survey in 2007 (Leigh 2007), however, it did not include this fort. Subsequent, archaeological testing within this field, a minimum of 40m distant from the monument, produced no related material (Hull 2008). The other two ‘Ballyvaghan forts’, the cashel (CL002-050----) and enclosure (CL002-054----), are located c. 70m SSW and c. 80m SE, respectively. Westropp (1901, 279–80) also included an exceptionally large cashel (CL002-053----) located c. 180m north in this group.

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin

Date of upload: 9 December 2020

References

Westropp, T.J 1901 Prehistoric remains in north-western Clare part II. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 31, 273-91.

Leigh, J. 2007 Geophysical Survey Report. Ballyvaghan, County Clare. Licence No. 07R0238. Unpublished Report, National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

Hull, G. 2008 2008:106. Ballyvaghan, Clare, Licence 08E0104 https://excavations.ie/report/2008/Clare/0019120/ [accessed 24/08/2020]

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Ringfort - rath in Clare All County Clare records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
See your own family's places on a living map