TreeAlive
‹ Sites and Monuments Record, Ireland

Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Ranaghan, County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Ranaghan, 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
Ranaghan
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Hachured, Fortfield
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured
Coordinates
53.64646, -7.23517
SMR number
WM008-049----

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)

Get directions ↗

This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on SSE face of a gentle slope in undulating and hilly grass-land, overlooked by hills to the NNW & ESE. Ringfort (WM008-048----) 300m to NW. A sub-circular shaped area (approx. diam. 44m N-S; 46m E-W) enclosed by a substantial earthen bank and a wide deep external fosse. The bank has several disturbance gaps. There is an entrance gap (Wth 3.8m) and causeway (Wth 3.2m; H 0.35m) across the fosse at E. The interior has a general slight slope from NNW-SSE and contains traces of cultivation ridges which run WNW-ESE. At the centre of the interior is a circular earthen mound (diam. 5.8m; H 0.4m) of unknown significance. This small mound could be the remains of a small barrow and is clearly visible on Digital Globe aerial photograph taken November 2011. This earthwork is located in the same general area as 'Rinechan Castle' *WM008-076----) depicted on the 1657 Down Survey map of Fore barony and St. Feighin's parish (NLI MS 723-4). It is possible that the mound inside the ringfort could mark the site of the levelled castle of Ranaghan.

Compiled by: Frank Coyne and Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 20 April 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 Ringfort - rath in Westmeath All County Westmeath records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
See your own family's places on a living map