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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Balrath East, County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Balrath East, 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
Balrath East
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Hachured
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured
Coordinates
53.55967, -7.16167
SMR number
WM020-018----

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 low ridge, in pasture. Annotated 'Fort' on the 1837 OS Fair Plan map and depicted as a large, roughly circular-shaped enclosure. A path is also shown leading up to the site at SW and a gravel pit outside the perimeter at NE.
Monument described in 1981 as a subcircular-shaped area (dims. 36.5m NW-SE) enclosed by an earthen bank, an intervening fosse and suggestions of an outer bank. The inner bank (ext. H 3.5m) is substantial. There are slight traces of a fosse (Wth 3m). There are remnants of an outer bank in places, although this is very degraded. There is a gap in the inner bank at E which indicates an entrance. The surface of the interior is very uneven and obscured by overgrowth. This earthwork is bisected by a field fence which runs NE-SW across the site. Monument is visible as a tree-lined earthwork on Digital Globe aerial photography.

See attached plan of monument surveyed and drawn by the ASI

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

Date of upload: 06 June 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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