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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Promontory fort - coastal

Portally, County Waterford, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Promontory fort - coastal, Portally, County Waterford, 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
Portally
County
Waterford
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
52.13468, -7.02566
SMR number
WA027-089----

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)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1882 · Ireland (southern half). (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

Identified from an aerial survey by Markus Casey who described this monument as a large rectangular headland (L 90m; max. Wth 33m), flanked by a gully to the SE and by a blow-hole and cliff on the W which was cut off from the mainland by exploiting a natural cleft running along the E side. A fosse dug along the landward side leaving a causeway close to the blow-hole along the W completed the enclosure. A gentle rise on either side of the fosse and along the eastern gully suggests a former bank. A land commission earthen bank surrounds the headland, except along the E where it has recently collapsed into the sea. On the extremity of the headland is a small subsidiary promontory, which was in turn cut off by a low earthen bank and slight ditch across its narrow neck (Wth 7m). The area is one of undulating fertile overgrazed pasture with 100' cliffs. (Casey 2001)

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 24 November 2021

References

Casey, M. 2001 The coastal promontory forts of Ireland: interim report for the Heritage Council. Unpublished specialist report, National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

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 Promontory fort - coastal in Waterford All County Waterford records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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