Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a low rise, in pasture. Ringforts (WM018-046----, WM018-048---- and WM018-049----) lie c. 130m to SW, c. 165m to E and c. 180m to NE, respectively. Depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map as a D-shaped earthwork with rectangular house site (WM018-047001-) in centre of interior. Depicted on the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map as a D-shaped earthwork which is enclosed by a field boundary from N-E. A circular-shaped earthwork is depicted on an estate map of Rathconrath dating from 1776 (NLI, MS 21 F. 48 (026) ).
Monument described in 1970 as a roughly circular-shaped bivallate area (dims. 24m NE-SW; 20m NW-SE) enclosed by an inner bank which is reduced to a scarp in places, an intervening fosse and an outer bank. The inner bank is of earth and stone and is well-defined, except where quarried from W-WNW. There are faint traces of a fosse in places. The remains of an outer bank of earth and stone are visible from NNE-E-ESE and from SW-W. The original entrance is not recognisable. A portion of a modern bank intersects the scarp at N. The interior has traces of cultivation ridges running NE-SW and a house site (WM018-047001-). Monument is visible as a partially tree-lined earthwork on Digital Globe aerial photography.

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

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

Date of upload: 04 February 2019

References

NLI, MS 21 F. 48 (26) - National Library of Ireland, A map of lands at Ballinbeg Rathconrath and Simonstown... in the barony of Rathconrath and County of Westmeath. Names of tenants and acreage of holdings shown. Longfield Map Collection. Dublin.