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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Battery

Mutton Island, County Galway, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Battery, Mutton Island, 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
Mutton Island
County
Galway
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.25441, -9.05358
SMR number
GA094-032----

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 Mutton Island, a low irregular offshore island 2km S of Galway town (GA094-100----). No visible surface trace survives but the fortifications may have been quite extensive: the island's shape bears a remarkable resemblance to a star-shaped fort. An artillery battery was constructed here as early as 1611 and a report of 1691 considered Mutton Island, 'where the old castle stoud', as the best place for the construction of a fort (Walsh 1981, 70, 115). Whether it was ever built is unclear; in 1691 Goubet drew a plan of the (?proposed) fortifications (NLI MS 2742; pers. comm. P. Walsh). The island was subsequently re-fortified as a battery in 1702 and again in the mid-18th C (Walsh 1981, 118, 128). Demolished in 1815 to make way for the lighthouse. (Kerrigan 1980, 136; Hardiman 1820, 164-5, 167, 316-17)

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. I - West Galway'. Compiled by Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993).

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
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