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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Fountainhill, County Mayo, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Fountainhill, County Mayo, 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
Fountainhill
County
Mayo
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.55783, -9.14513
SMR number
MA121-199----

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

In pasture, located on a NW−facing terrace on a low hill. A modern road skirts the base of the hill at W−NW
This rath is not shown on any edition of the OS 6-inch maps. It has been partly levelled and the remains are now very low profile at ground level.
Subcircular area (38m N−S; 41m E−W) defined by a levelled bank. At W−E the bank is reduced to a broad, low undulation (Wth 3-4), which merges with the natural fall of ground at the terrace edge; at NW the terrace slope drops 1.7m to lower ground. At SE−SW the bank is evident as an inward-sloping scarp (int. H c. 0.7m), which cuts across the rising hill slope. Stones protrude from the sod in parts around the perimeter. A low area (Wth c. 3-4m) on the perimeter at E, with a gently external slope, may be an original entrance. There is another, poorly defined low area at SW.
In the NW quadrant, a low scarp (H 0.45m) curves NW−N in a shallow arc (L c. 7m), with a large stone or bedrock protruding from the N end. It marks a drop in interior ground level along the NW perimeter of the terrace.
There are two enclosure (MA121-068----; MA121-069----) 225m and 350m to SE and E, respectively, and Kilkeeran church (MA121-065001-) and ecclesiastical enclosure (MA121-065003-) are located 450m to W.

Attached images:
MA121-199----_01.JPG Viewed from E
MA121-199----_02.JPG Viewed from W
MA101-199----_03.JPG Levelled bank on E arc

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 31 March 2021

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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