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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Castle - motte and bailey

Killagh, County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Castle - motte and bailey, Killagh, 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
Killagh
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Hachured
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured
Coordinates
53.56413, -7.12701
SMR number
WM020-024----

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 slight rise, in gently undulating pasture, with excellent views from the top of the motte, in all directions. Church and graveyard (WM020-025----/-025001-) lie c. 60m to NE and Killagh tower house lies c. 135m to NW. Annotated 'Moat' on the 1837 OS Fair Plan map where it is depicted as an oval-shaped tree-planted earthwork. Depicted on the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map as a roughly circular-shaped mound which is enclosed by a wide fosse from SE-S-W-NW.
Monument described in 1970 as a roughly circular-shaped, high, steep-sided flat-topped earthen mound the base of which is enclosed by a fosse and the remains of an external bank. A wide, deep fosse and an outer bank are visible from SE-S-WSW. The bank has a modern gap at S and is very slight from SW-WSW. A modern bank running ESE-WNW is built against the outer face of the bank from SSE-S-SSW. The bank veers away from the fosse at SE to enclose a larger area, which may have been a bailey, although there is little evidence of such surviving. Monument is visible today as a tree-covered earthwork on Digital Globe aerial photography.

See attached 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 Castle - motte and bailey in Westmeath All County Westmeath records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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