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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Settlement cluster

Finnea, County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Settlement cluster, Finnea, County Westmeath, 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
Finnea
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Finnea
Latest-edition OS map
Finnea
Coordinates
53.78069, -7.38990
SMR number
WM001-059----

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

The modern village of Finnea or Fiodh an Átha (the wood of the ford) appears to have been built on the site of a medieval settlement consisting of a cluster of dwellings flanking both sides of a medieval routeway crossing the Inny River at the medieval bridge (WM001-052----) of Finnea. This roadway and fording point was the main medieval routeway connecting Westmeath to Cavan (Manning 1997, 29). A medieval castle (WM001-001----) protected this bridge and fording point over the Inny River, in the 17th century an artillery fort (WM001A001-) was built to the W of the village. This cluster of dwellings and routeway are depicted on the 1657 Down Survey map of Fore Barony (NLI, MS 723-4). On this map a ruinous tower or castle is depicted standing in the field to the N of the road crossing the bridge and a cluster of dwellings stand either side of this roadway representing the medieval village or settlement of Finnea. According to Manning (1997, 31) there was a medieval settlement at Finnea located on the border of the Anglo-Norman lordship of Meath.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 18 November 2016

References

NLI, MS 723-4 - National Library of Ireland, The parish maps of the Down Survey for the County of Westmeath, attested by W. Petty, in 1659. Copied by Daniel O'Brien. A set of 67 maps with accompanying terriers in two volumes, 1786-7. Dublin.

Manning, C. 1997 The Bridge of Finnea and the Man Who Built It. Archaeology Ireland, 11, 1, 29-31. Wordwell.

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 Settlement cluster in Westmeath All County Westmeath records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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