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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Hilltown, County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Hilltown, 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
Hilltown
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured
Coordinates
53.72029, -7.25818
SMR number
WM003-046----

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

Situated on S facing slope of rising ground with good views to S and W. Ringfort known locally as 'Rathbane' (Adams 1957, 44) standing inside an old woodland plantation that is depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map. A circular area (approx. diam. 28m E-W) enclosed by earth and stone bank and wide external fosse with slight traces of an outer bank only visible from NNW-N. No entrance feature visible. The inner bank is best preserved from NNW-N-NNE and is reduced to a scarp from NNE-E-SE. From SE-S-SSW the perimeter has been quarried away and there is a large quarry hole visible. The fosse is visible from SSW-W-N-NNE only. The ground immediately outside the ringfort has been planted with trees and is enclosed by an earthen bank of post-1700 date.

Compiled by: Frank Coyne & Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 5 January 2017

References

Adams, F.R.G. 1957 As viewed from the Ben of Fore (2). Ríocht na Mídhe I (3), 44-49.

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 Ringfort - rath in Westmeath All County Westmeath records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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