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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Griffinstown, County Westmeath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Griffinstown, 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
Griffinstown
County
Westmeath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Outlined
Latest-edition OS map
Hachured
Coordinates
53.46304, -7.16562
SMR number
WM027-068----

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 slight, yet prominent rise, in gently undulating pasture. Depicted on the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map as a long oval-shaped earthwork (approx. dims. 49m E-W; 26m N-S) defined by a scarp, a wide fosse and enclosed by a field boundary. Monument described in 1971 as a large subrectangular-shaped area enclosed by an inner bank, an intervening fosse, an outer bank and trench. The inner bank is steep on the exterior and is almost reduced to a scarp. There is a wide, yet shallow intervening fosse. The outer earthen tree-lined bank is steep and is enclosed by a steep-sided trench which are not concentric with the inner bank and intervening fosse and may be later features. The original entrance is not recognisable. There is a gap in both banks at S, although these are staggered. A portion of the interior at the ESE end is divided from the rest by a curvilinear bank which has a probable entrance gap at WNW. There is a curvilinear fosse-like depression extending from the SW corner of the site and its significance is unknown. Monument is visible today as an oblong tree-lined earthwork on Digital Globe aerial photography.

See attached plan of monument surveyed and drawn by the ASI.

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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