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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Sionhill, County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Sionhill, 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
Sionhill
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Hachured
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured
Coordinates
53.54486, -7.14304
SMR number
WM020-048----

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 the S-side of a high ridge, in pasture and tillage with good views to E and W. Sionhill House lies c. 170m to NW. Depicted on the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map as a roughly circular-shaped earthwork. Monument described in 1970 as a large circular shaped area (approx. diam. 49m) enclosed by a bank which has been reduced to a scarp and with the remains of an external fosse. The bank is substantial and best preserved from E-SE. elsewhere it is slight with a number of gaps. The wide shallow fosse is visible from W-N-E-SE. A later trench has been dug outside the bank from S-W. The original entrance is not clearly visible. A possible entrance gap may exist at E-SSE where the bank is reduced to a scarp, it is slightly defaced and a depression exists at the base. There is a large, shallow quarry hole on the exterior from SE-SSE. The interior has a gentle NE-facing slope with traces of cultivation ridges running NE-SW. Monument is visible today as a partial circular tree-lined earthwork, the interior of which has been ploughed across as shown on Digital Globe aerial photography.

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

Date of upload: 11 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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