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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Barrow - unclassified

Hanstown, County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Barrow - unclassified, Hanstown, 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
Hanstown
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Hachured
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured
Coordinates
53.49700, -7.42836
SMR number
WM025-026----

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 top of a hillock, in gently undulating pasture, with extensive views to S, E and NE. Monument described as a small oval-shaped area (dims. 60m N-S; 57m E-W) enclosed by a bank (ext. H 1.2m) and external fosse visible from S-SW-W and at NE. No clear entrance feature visible. The bank has almost been reduced to a scarp, primarily due to ploughing. The ground across the bank, fosse and interior has traces of cultivation ridges running NNW-SSE which appear to have denuded the enclosing elements and interior to their present low profile state. The ground within the interior rises towards the centre where there is a wide, flat platform which is defined by a low bank which is best preserved at N, NE, SW and W. A tree-lined field boundary surrounds the base of the hillock and is not concentric with the bank or fosse. It is flanked on the exterior by a modern drain from S-W. There is a modern quarry hole at the base of the enclosing field boundary at E. Later field banks intersect the enclosing boundary at N and SW. A Preservation Order was placed on this monument on 17/08/1990 (SMR file). The classification of this monument is uncertain with the possibility that the low mound or platform in the centre is the remains of a burial mound rather than a house platform. The profile of the monument and the possibility of the presence of a ditch around the central mound may suggest that this is the remains of a barrow rather than a ringfort with central house platform.

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

Date of upload: 05 September 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
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