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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Hillfort

Earlspark, County Galway, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Hillfort, Earlspark, 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
Earlspark
County
Galway
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.17199, -8.54164
SMR number
GA105-086----

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 the summit of a prominent hill (OD 520 ft), overlooking Lough Rea c. 1.3km to the NW. Aerial reconnaissance in February 1986 (ASGAP 267:8) revealed this poorly preserved roughly oval hillfort (c. 200m E-W; c. 150m N-S) which is defined by a bank (Wth across the top c. 1.5m; int. H c. 0.6m) from N to E and by a scarp from E to SE and from W to N; otherwise no visible surface trace of the enclosing element survives. Several modern field boundaries cut across the monument. A field system (GA105-087----) abuts it at NE. Beglan (2014, 313-14) suggests that the hillfort may have been reused as a 'secondary lodge' when the high medieval deer park (GA105-236----) was established.

Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG

Updated by: Olive Alcock

Date of revised upload: 15 October 2020

References

ASGAP - Archaeological Survey Galway Aerial Photograph.

Beglane, F. 2014 Theatre of power: the Anglo-Norman park at Earlspark, Co Galway, Ireland. Medieval Archaeology 58, 307-17.

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