TreeAlive
‹ Sites and Monuments Record, Ireland

Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Kilkenny Lanesborough, County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Kilkenny Lanesborough, 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
Kilkenny Lanesborough
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Parially outlined, Pillar
Coordinates
53.47818, -7.82968
SMR number
WM023-028----

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)

Get directions ↗

This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a steep knoll, with panoramic views of the surrounding landscape. Depicted as an irregular-shaped woodland plantation on the 1st ed. OS 6-inch map with Ordnance Survey Trig. Station in centre of woodland marking the OD 338 ft.. Monument described in 1982 as a ringfort that was reused as a designed landscape feature in the 18th century. Site consist of a circular-shaped area (diam. 25m) enclosed by a low earth and stone bank with no trace of an external fosse. The interior is flat and has a circular-shaped stone pillar (approx. H 5m) within the centre which is annotated ‘Lows Folly’ on the 1837 OS Fair Plan Map. Halfway up the pillar there is a rectangular-shaped plaque with an inscription which reads 'this pier erected 1769'. 'Pillar' described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage as following; 'Freestanding pillar/monument/folly on circular plan and c. five metres in height, dated 1769. Built in rubble limestone with projecting cut stone band at a high level and a shallow domed rubble limestone cap over. Cut stone date stone incised '1769'. (www.buildingsofireland.ie: Reg. No. 15402318). The base of this hillock is enclosed by a low stone wall which forms a semi-circular-shaped enclosure (approx. diam. 100m) visible on Digital Globe aerial photographs. Field boundary running NW-SE forming enclosing element of monument on SW side represents the townland boundary with Lisnascreen.

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

Date of upload: 24 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)
See your own family's places on a living map