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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Moated site

Down, County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Moated site, Down, 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
Down
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Hachured
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured
Coordinates
53.59947, -7.34851
SMR number
WM012-044----

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 a steep natural hillock in hilly grassland. 'Rahanduff' ringfort (WM012-042---) 220m to WNW and possible motte (WM012-044---) 80m to NW. The road which forms the townland boundary with Galmoylestown Lower is 5m to N. Levelled site visible as a cropmark on Digital Globe aerial photograph taken November 2011. In 1970 the monument was upstanding and described as consisting of a sub-circular shaped area (approx. diam. 38m NE-SW; 33m NW-SE) enclosed by a low earthen bank and external fosse which is visible from NNW- NNE and from SSW-W. Traces of cultivation ridges are visible running E-W across the interior, which slopes NNW-ESE. The monument which appears to have been a roughly square shaped earthwork is clearly visible on Cambridge University aerial photographs taken July 1966 and July 1970 (CUCAP APE033-034; BDV074). On these aerial photographs the roughly square-shaped monument has the appearance of a possible moated site rather than a ringfort. A site visit in 1984 described the monument as levelled with no surface remains visible.

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

Compiled by: Frank Coyne and Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 8 February 2018

References

CUCAP - Cambridge University Collection of Aerial Photographs. Unit for Landscape Modelling, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge. See:https://www.cambridgeairphotos.com

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