TreeAlive
‹ Sites and Monuments Record, Ireland

Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Souterrain

Rathbran More, County Meath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Souterrain, Rathbran More, 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
Rathbran More
County
Meath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Cave
Latest-edition OS map
Cave
Coordinates
53.78988, -6.58106
SMR number
ME013-002----

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)
  • 1799 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1811 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Get directions ↗

This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated at the crest of a steep N-facing slope. This feature is annotated as ‘Cave’ in gothic lettering on the 1836 and 1908 editions of the OS 6-inch map. The souterrain is beneath an E-W road and has an entrance that is still open under the S face of the N road bank. It was described in 1969 (SMR file) as a drystone-built, L-shaped passage (total L c. 11m) that extended S from the entrance and then W before terminating in beehive chamber that was partially collapsed revealing rock outcrop behind the stonwork but the chamber has an air-vent extending W. Archaeological testing (04E0818) by R. Meenan immediately to the S produced no related material (excavations.ie 2004:1322). Further archaeological testing (08E0485) by C. Gleeson c. 50m to the W on the N side of the road (Doolan and Gleeson 2008) also failed to produce any material relating to it. More recent archaeological testing (20E0417) by Donald Murphy c. 20m to the E at the closest point and N of the road did not produce any evidence of an associated enclosure, but it did uncover an E-W trench (Wth 2.25m plus; D 1.6m) filled with soils that had plastic inclusions just inside the N road boundary (excavations.ie 2020:147).

The 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 upload: 10 July 2007
Amended: 3 August 2022

References

Doolan, R. and Gleeson, C. 2008 Archaeological Assessment at Rathbran More, Lobinstown, Co. Meath. Licence: 08E0485. Unpublished report, the Archaeology Company

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)
See your own family's places on a living map