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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Tlachta, County Meath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Tlachta, 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
Tlachta
County
Meath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.62500, -6.88888
SMR number
ME030-001002-

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)
  • 1799 · 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 towards the top of the S-facing slope of the broad Hill of Ward or Tlachta. A remote sensing survey (12R0057) identified a small enclosure (int. diam. c. 35m) defined by a single ditch feature which has an entrance gap at E. The N part of this fosse impinges on the line of the outermost bank of the visible monument (ME030-001----). (Davis 2017, 3, TL2)

Archaeological excavation (E004474) in Trench 3 during 2014 at the S edge of the visible earthwork recorded a section of the rock-cut ditch (Wth of top 3.05m; D 0.8m) of this rath. A cattle bone from the primary fill produced a C14 date in the fifth century AD, and an inhumation of a 2 to 3-month old child from an upper fill in a rudimentary slab-lined grave has a C14 date in the same century. During 2015 Trench 5 was placed at the interface of this monument with the third bank of the visible earthwork and demonstrated that the rock-cut ditch of this rath was truncated by that of the larger enclosure. For summaries of the excavation see this web-page accessed on 18/04/2017: http://www.excavations.ie/report/2014/Meath/0023689/

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 21 April, 2017

Davis, S. 2017 Hill of Ward, Tlachtga, Athboy. Geophysical survey report (Interim). Licence numbers: 12R0057, 12R0058, 12R0059 and 12R0055. Unpublished report, UCD School of Archaeology

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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