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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Heathstown (Farbill By.), County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Heathstown, 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
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

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 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
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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