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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Slane Beg, County Westmeath, Ireland

The record

Townland
Slane Beg
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Hachured
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.55688, -7.42967
SMR number
WM018-018----

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

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The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on S-facing slope of a small ridge, in undulating pasture with extensive views in all directions. Depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map as a roughly oval-shaped enclosure, with a townland boundary and a field boundary adjacent to E and S, respectively. Annotated ‘fort’ on the 1837 OS Fair Plan map where it is depicted as a large roughly rectilinear-shaped earthwork. Not depicted on the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map.
Described in 1980 as a large roughly rectangular-shaped area (dims. 51m E-W; 44m N-S) enclosed by a bank and an external fosse with no sign of an entrance feature. The bank is best preserved from SW-W-NW, but is barely discernible where it is reduced to a low scarp from N-E-SE-S-SW. A shallow fosse is visible from SW-W-NNW and its outer edge has been defaced by old cultivation ridges running roughly E-W to W and N. The interior has a very steep SE-facing slope, with the exception of a relatively level area in the NE quadrant. There are remains of old cultivation ridges running N-S within the W quadrant. A modern field fence runs just outside the perimeter to E and S. The field fence shown running roughly E-W to the immediate N of the site on OS mapping has been removed along with field fences further to W and NW.
Monument appears to have been levelled between 1980 and recent times as only the faintest outline of a levelled earthwork is visible today on Digital Globe aerial photography.

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

Date of upload: 11 January 2019

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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