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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Castle - ringwork

Rathcronan, County Longford, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Castle - ringwork, Rathcronan, County Longford, 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
Rathcronan
County
Longford
Country
Ireland
Latest-edition OS map
Bakers Fort
Coordinates
53.77751, -7.49313
SMR number
LF010-056----

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)
  • 1811 · 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 SE end of a hillock, surrounded by marshy wet terrain from E-S-W, c. 90m to the S of the properties facing onto the main street of the medieval borough of Granard (LF010-055----) and 500m E of the motte and bailey (LF010-080001-) and possible medieval church (LF010-055001-).
A raised almost circular area (c. 50m E-W; c. 48m N-S; H 1-1.8m) enclosed from SE-SSE-S and from SW-W-N by a bank of earth and stone (Wth 3m; H 0.2-1.8m) and elsewhere defined by a scarp (H 1 1.8m). The remains of a berm (Wth 6m; D 0.15m) from SW-W appear to indicate that the hillock was cut into and levelled to create the raised platform. There is no evidence of any enclosing fosse or of the original entrance. A livestock gap is visible in the S half.
The wetland siting of this monument is atypical of a ringfort. Its location in the centre of the possible medieval borough suggests that it may be the site of an Anglo-Norman manor house or the fortified residence of a high-status family of the borough. However, it is very similar morphologically to the excavated ringfort (RO022-114003-) and tower house (LF022-114011-) at Tulsk, county Roscommon (Brady 2011, 309-10).

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 28 March 2012

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 Castle - ringwork in Longford All County Longford records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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