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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Hopestown, County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Hopestown, 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
Hopestown
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Hachured
Latest-edition OS map
Partially hachured
Coordinates
53.52003, -7.40946
SMR number
WM018-137----

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 on a prominent rise, in otherwise low-lying wet pasture with good views in all directions, particularly to S and NW. Depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map as a suboval-shaped earthwork, with a quarried area in the S quadrant and a laneway flanking the perimeter from SSW-W-NNW. Depicted on the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map as a suboval-shaped earthwork with a distinct quarried area in the S quadrant.
Monument described in 1970 as consisting of a partially levelled D-shaped area (approx. 60m NW-SE; 60m NE-SW along straight side) enclosed by a steep earthen bank with slight remains of an outer fosse. The bank is best preserved along the straight side to NNW and is lower with several gaps from NNW-N-E-SSE and from SSW-W-NW. The slight fosse is visible from NE-E-S. A gap (Wth at top 8.3m; basal Wth 2.6m) and a slight causeway (Wth at top 3.3m; overall Wth 7.5m; max. H 0.05m) at SE may represent the entrance. There is a modern bank outside the scarp from SSW-W-N-NE. The perimeter and a large portion of the S quadrant within have been quarried from SSE-S-SSW. The interior has a general E-facing slope and is slightly uneven where there are traces of cultivation ridges running ENE-WSW. Levelled monument described in 1980 as no surface remains visible. The field fences depicted on the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map flanking the perimeter from NE-N-W-SSW and field fences to SW and W, have been removed during land reclamation works in the early 1970s.
The groundworks for a modern house constructed within the interior of the levelled monument in 1985 were monitored by an archaeologist from the ASI. The topsoil (D 0.3-0.4m) removed from the foundation trenches was sterile and no archaeological features were revealed cut into the subsoil. Cropmark of levelled monument visible today as a suboval-shaped area of differential growth on Digital Globe aerial photography, with a modern house and driveway in centre of earthwork. The S quadrant of the ringfort may have bee truncated by the public road running roughly E-W.

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

Date of upload: 12 February 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
All Ringfort - rath in Westmeath All County Westmeath records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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