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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Heathstown (farbill By.), County Westmeath, Ireland

The record

Townland
Heathstown (farbill By.)
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Hachured
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured
Coordinates
53.48239, -7.20018
SMR number
WM027-039----

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (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 a rise of ground, in gently undulating pasture, with good views in all directions. Depicted on the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map as a circular-shaped earthwork. Bivallate enclosure described in 1971 as a circular-shaped area (dims. 47.6m E-W; 46m N-S) enclosed by an inner bank, an intervening fosse and an outer bank. The inner bank is high on the exterior and is best preserved from WSW-W-NW and from ESE-SE-S and is almost reduced to a scarp elsewhere, which is defaced at N and S. There is a wide intervening fosse which is almost completely obscured by thorn bushes. There is a steep outer bank which may be a later feature but it is difficult to be certain as it is also obscured by thorn bushes. A gap (Wth at top 5.2m; basal Wth 1.1m) in the inner bank, a gap (Wth at top 2.9m; basal Wth 1.5m) in the outer bank and a slight causeway (Wth at top 1.9m; overall Wth 4m; H 0.3m) at E represents the entrance. The top of the causeway is lower than the outer upper edge of the fosse. The interior has a slight SSW-facing slope and has cultivation ridges running NNE-SSW. Monument is visible today as a roughly circular-shaped bivallate tree-lined earthwork on Digital Globe aerial photography.

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

Date of upload: 06 November 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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