TreeAlive
‹ Sites and Monuments Record, Ireland

Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Watchtower

Bohercuill, County Galway, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Watchtower, Bohercuill, 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
Bohercuill
County
Galway
Country
Ireland
Latest-edition OS map
Indicated
Coordinates
53.47033, -9.02379
SMR number
GA042-034----

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 hill in undulating grassland. An enigmatic subcircular building (N-S 2.05m, E-W 1.97m, H 3.8m) constructed of stone and mortar. It is capped by a corbelled stone roof, conical in form, which springs from the inner edge of the side walls. A small chimney stack surmounts its apex. There is a robbed-out doorway at E, a small splayed window at W, and a fireplace at NE, to E of which are traces of a second window. Traces of a mortared floor survive in SW sector. The building is plastered internally, and the roof both externally and internally. According to local information, it was used as a lookout post to watch over flocks of sheep. Adjoining the monument at E is a small trapezoidal field (L 8m, Wth 1.5m) enclosed by a stone wall; possibly associated.

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: 05 August 2010

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 Watchtower in Galway All County Galway records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
See your own family's places on a living map