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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Island West, County Galway, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Island West, County Galway, 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
Island West
County
Galway
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured
Coordinates
53.69732, -8.62876
SMR number
GA001-020----

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)

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

The National Monuments Service's description

On a low but prominent hill in grassland surrounded on three sides by bogland. A subcircular rath (N-S 61m, E-W 55m), in fair condition, defined by a bank from N to E, and elsewhere by a scarp. A field bank encircles the enclosing element from SW through N to NE, and another cuts across the rath at NE and SSE. In NW quadrant , a low wedge-shaped platform (L 9m, H 0.75m), narrowing from 7m in width at S to 4.7m at N, is possibly a house foundation (GA001-020001-). There is a small rectangular hollow at S end, the result of digging in recent years. This is pointed out as the site of a 'cave' (possible souterrain - GA001-020001-) but no visible surface trace of such is visible. A number of low banks are also visible to E and SE of it, running principally on a NW-SE axis; possible internal subdivisions.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999).

Date of upload: 28 September 2017

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 Galway All County Galway records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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