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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Balrowan (Packenham), County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Balrowan (Packenham), 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
Balrowan (Packenham)
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Hachured
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured
Coordinates
53.50960, -7.17199
SMR number
WM020-119----

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 side of a natural scarp, overlooked by higher ground to SE. Depicted on the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map as an oval-shaped earthwork. Monument described in 1970 as a roughly circular-shaped area (dims. 22m NW-SE; 19.5m NE-SW) enclosed by a bank with a scarp in places and an outer fosse. The earth and stone bank is present from SE-S-W-N-NE and is reduced to a scarp from NE-E-SE, whereby it drops into the interior from the external ground level. The slight shallow fosse is only visible from S-W-WNW. A gap (Wth at top 4.2m; basal Wth 1.7m) in the bank at SSE presumably represents the entrance and there is a large disturbance gap at NW. The interior has a gentle NNE-facing slope and traces of cultivation ridges running WNW-ESE. Monument is visible today as an oval-shaped, partially tree-lined earthwork on Digital Globe aerial photography.

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

Date of upload: 09 July 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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