Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Ringfort - rath
Sionhill, County Westmeath, Ireland
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 LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
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
- Ringfort - unclassifiedunder 1 mi
- Enclosureunder 1 mi
- Barrow - unclassifiedunder 1 mi
- Graveyardunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.