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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Megalithic structure

Frenchfort, County Galway, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Megalithic structure, Frenchfort, 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
Frenchfort
County
Galway
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.29298, -8.87771
SMR number
GA083-078----

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 open level rough grazing land, part of the Defence Forces' property at the Oranmore Firing Range. Cultivation ridges are visible in the surrounding fields. A ringbarrow (GA083-077----) lies 630m to the NW.A large roughly rectangular earthfast limestone orthostat (L 1.95m N-S; Wth 0.5m; H 1.3m), with a slightly rounded upper surface, is flanked immediately to the E and W by two displaced and now recumbent trapezoidal limestone slabs. The E slab measures 1.85m in length along its W side and has a maximum length of 1.2m along its S side and is 0.55m in thickness. Its S edge is very smooth, as if it once might have stood erect with its current S edge as the base. The W slab measures 1.8m along its N side and 1.06m along the E side and is 0.6m in thickness. Some small stones, cleared from the surrounding field, have been piled around the slabs.
At first sight it appears that a single boulder was split, leaving a central orthostat with a displaced slab on either side, however, the faces of the two recumbent slabs don't match the faces of the orthostat, which has a pronounced offset of c. 0.15cms near the base on its W face (visible in profile in photo GA083-078----_02.jpg). Possibly a megalithic structure.

The following images have been uploaded:
GA083-078----_02.jpg View from S
GA083-078----_03.jpg View from W
GA083-078----_04.jpg View from N
GA083-078----_05.jpg View from E

Compiled by: Olive Alcock

Date of upload: 11 July 2023

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