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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Kilgawny, County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Kilgawny, 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
Kilgawny
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Hachured
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured
Coordinates
53.53482, -7.59311
SMR number
WM017-065----

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 just below the summit, on the N side of a natural ridge, with extensive views to W, N and E. Monument is visible as a circular-shaped tree-lined earthwork on Digital Globe aerial photography. Depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map as a circular-shaped tree-lined enclosure, with field boundary running NW-SE extending from NW and intersecting with a field boundary running NE-SW at ESE.
Described in 1980 as a roughly circular-shaped area (approx. dims. 38.5m N-S; 37.5m E-W) enclosed by a bank which is reduced to a scarp, an outer fosse with the very slight remains of a low counterscarp bank outside it. There is no sign of an original entrance. The inner bank is best preserved and quite substantial from E-S-W, is reduced to a scarp from W-N-NNE and is poorly preserved from NNE-NE-E. There is a modern gap in the scarp at W and some cattle breaches at N and SSE. The fosse is well preserved where it is wide and deep from SE-SW-W and has been partially infilled from W-N-E-SE. The outer bank is very faint and is only clearly visible from SE-S-SW. The interior has a slight W-facing slope. Inside the modern gap at W and extending into the interior there is a modern cattle crush running E-W.

Compiled by: Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien

Date of upload: 13 December 2018

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
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