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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Castle - motte and bailey

Rathgarve, County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Castle - motte and bailey, Rathgarve, 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
Rathgarve
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Hachured, dotted outline
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured
Coordinates
53.70725, -7.28885
SMR number
WM003-070----

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)
  • 1811 · 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 top of a high steep ridge in grassland, with commanding views of the surrounding countryside. Tower house (WM003-066----) 280m to S, 17th century wayside cross (WM003-069---) 50m to W, Rathgarve church (WM003-068----) and graveyard (WM003-068001-) 120m to NNW. Stream which forms the townland boundary with Stonestown is 150m to E. The remains of a narrow roadway flanked on either side by a low stone wall 50m W of motte and bailey could be medieval in date.
Present remains consist of a high steep, flat topped earthen mound (top diam. 18m E-W; base diam. 30m E-W) now covered in scrub vegetation which is enclosed by a wide, deep fosse and earthen bank, with a narrow causeway across the fosse at N. To N of the motte is a rectangular bailey (approx. dims. 32m N-S x 29m E-W) enclosed by an earthen bank and fosse. The enclosing bank is visible only at N. Traces of cultivation ridges are visible running WSW-ESE across the interior of the bailey.

See attached plan of monument surveyed and drawn by the ASI.

Compiled by: Frank Coyne and Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 22 May 2017

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 Castle - motte and bailey in Westmeath All County Westmeath records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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