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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Ballyowen, County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Ballyowen, 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
Ballyowen
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured
Coordinates
53.56111, -7.14843
SMR number
WM020-020----

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 top of a steep, prominent hillock, in gently undulating pasture with good views in all directions. Ringfort (WM020-021----) lies c. 165m to SSE. Depicted on the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map as a roughly circular-shaped tree-planted earthwork. Monument described in 1970 as a broad oval-shaped area (diam. 29m) enclosed by an inner bank, an intervening fosse and an outer bank. The steep earth and stone bank is almost reduced to a scarp and is present from WSW-W-WNW. The remains of a slight fosse are present from S-W-N and NE-E. A low outer bank is evident from S-W-NW. A modern earthen field fence running NNW-SSE has been formed out of the inner bank at E. A slight gap (Wth at top 3.4m; basal Wth 1m) in the inner bank, inside the field fence and a slight causeway (Wth at top 1m; overall Wth 4.3m; H 0.3m) outside it, presumably represent the entrance. The interior has a gentle E-facing slope and is pitted with slight hollows, including a large, shallow irregular hollow within the N quadrant. All of the hollows appear to be due to relatively modern disturbance. Monument is visible today as a tree-lined earthwork on Digital Globe aerial photography.

See attached plan and profile 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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