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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Souterrain

Rathbane, County Meath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Souterrain, Rathbane, County Meath, 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
Rathbane
County
Meath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.80710, -6.89502
SMR number
ME005-072----

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 1636 map "Vltoniae Orientalis Pars" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1636 · Vltoniae Orientalis Pars (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

Located on a rise on an undulating, low-lying landscape. A| souterrain chamber was discovered c. 1920 when a field bank was being built. It is described as circular ’7.5 feet in height, and 13 feet in diameter (c. 2.3m; c. 4.6m). A passage 3.5 feet high, and 2.5 feet wide (c. 1.05m x c. 0.75m) leads from the chamber in an easterly direction… I found that after leading 25 feet (c. 7.6m) it suddenly curved, and after passing a few feet farther it narrowed, and curving upwards, apparently towards the surface, was terminated by a large stone’ (O’Connell 1920). It is still extant in a small oval wood.

he above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revision: 5 September 2018

O’Connell, P. 1920 Miscellanea: Rathbawn Souterrain. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 50, 63-4.

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