Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Linear earthwork
Dring,cartronbore,clogh (granard By.),dalystown,tonymore North,springtown,toberfelim,abbeylara,aghnagarron,ballinrud East,ballinrud Glebe,ballinrud West,ballinulty Lower,carragh,tonymore South,carrickduff,tromra, County Longford, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Dring,cartronbore,clogh (granard By.),dalystown,tonymore North,springtown,toberfelim,abbeylara,aghnagarron,ballinrud East,ballinrud Glebe,ballinrud West,ballinulty Lower,carragh,tonymore South,carrickduff,tromra
- County
- Longford
- Country
- Ireland
- Latest-edition OS map
- Duncla or Black Pigs Race
- Coordinates
- 53.79817, -7.50477
- SMR number
- LF010-018----
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
In pasture. Marked on all editions of the OS 6-inch map running in a NW–SE direction between Lough Gowna and Lough Kinale, a distance of c. 10.6km (Keegan 2010). Where best preserved, in the NW of Cartronbore townland, it comprises two substantial banks of earth and stone (Wth c. 8m; H c. 1.2m), similar in morphology, with a wide, steep-sided, flat-bottomed, intermediate fosse (Wth 7m; D c. 1m). However, almost all other sections of it have been levelled to a greater or lesser extent but its circuit is preserved in field boundaries and drains. The precise function of this linear earthwork is unknown though according to local tradition, it was seen as the territorial boundary between the provinces of Ulster and Leinster and between the Gaelic regions of Annaly and Breifne (Farrell 1891, 270). It seems more likely that it functioned as a territorial boundary marker rather than a defensive frontier line. (ITA Survey 1944; English 1971, 150; Williams 1989, 12–19; Columb 2002, 20–6; O’Donovan 2003, 24; Keegan 2010; CUCAP, AJO 50)
Compiled by: Patrick F. O'Donovan
Date of upload: 2 March 2012
References
Columb, F. 2002 The Lough Gowna valley. Oxford. Gassan Academic Publishing Co.
English, N.W. 1971 Field antiquities of County Longford. Journal of the Longford Historical Society 1(2), 146-55.
Williams, F. 1989 The Black Pig's Dyke and linear earthworks. Emania 3, 12-19.
Fredengren, C., Kilfeather, A., and Stuijts, I. 2010 Lough Kinale: studies of an Irish lake. Lake settlement project. Discovery Programme Monograph No. 8. Wordwell Ltd.
Keegan, M. 2010 The Black Pig's race in County Longford between Lough Gowna and Lough Kinale. In Fredengren, C., Kilfeather, A., and Stuijts, I. (eds) Lough Kinale: studies of an Irish lake. Lake settlement project. Discovery Programme Monograph No. 8, 140-3. Wordwell Ltd. Bray.
Nearby in the register
- Standing stoneunder 1 mi
- Megalithic structureunder 1 mi
- Ringfort - rathunder 1 mi
- Standing stoneunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.