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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Castlereban South, County Kildare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Castlereban South, County Kildare, 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
Castlereban South
County
Kildare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Rheban Moat
Coordinates
53.02385, -7.03256
SMR number
KD034-001----

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 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1799 · 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

At the E end of a low narrow ridge in tillage, near the W edge of the River Barrow’s former flood plain. Fitzgerald (1897, 168) described the monument as, '.... an artificial moat or mound 38 feet [c. 11.6m] in height, attached to the north-east side of which is a triangular enclosure, surrounded by a deep, broad dyke, which gives the place the appearance of a rath. This enclosure is said to have an entrance on the North side, closed by an iron door, leading into a cave or underground chamber. The moat itself for many years past has been used as a gravel pit, and already about two-thirds of it have been carried away.' Only the E-half of the monument survives as a totally overgrown D-shaped area (int. diam. 22m ENE-WSW) with a truncated and straight SW side (L 42m). The surviving portion is defined by a low inner earthen bank (int H 0.3m; Wth 2m), a deep outer fosse (D below interior 6m; D below exterior 3.5m; Wth 2m), and by a second, low outer bank (Wth 3m; ext H 0.2m), while a high scarp (H 8m) defines the straight SW limits.

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy

Date of upload: 25 November 2013

References

FitzGerald, Lord W. 1897 Castle Rheban. Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society 2, 167-178.

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