Castle in Annaskinnan, County Westmeath

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What is recorded here

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Situated in relatively low lying wet pasture, c. 60m SE of a stream. Monument described in 1971 as a raised roughly circular-shaped platform (dims. 33.5m E-W; 32m N-S) defined by an inner bank, an intervening fosse and an outer bank. The inner bank is high and steep on the exterior being best preserved from NNW-N-NNE and is almost reduced to a scarp from NNE-E-S-W-NNW, except at SSW and W, where it is occupied by a quarry-like depression. There is a wide and deep intervening fosse. The outer bank is substantial and is almost completely denuded from WSW-W-WNW. There is a gap (Wth at top 9.7m; basal Wth 3.10m) in the inner bank, a causeway (Wth at top 2m; overall Wth 5.6m; H 1.3m) and a gap (Wth at top 6.4m; basal Wth 3m) in the outer bank at NNE which represents the entrance. The interior is raised high above the surrounding land and the surface has slight humps and hollows. Leading from higher ground at NW there is a raised earthen causeway which intersects the outer bank at N and then seems to extend along the outside of the outer bank to the entrance. This can be followed on Digital Globe aerial photography and may have curved around running towards ringfort (WM027-025----) indicating that the two monuments were physically connected on this wet floodplain.

From the National Monuments Service (Archaeological Survey of Ireland) record WM027-026

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Photo credits

National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Scaramanga731, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Royalcanalrunner, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
JP, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Maker not stated on source page, www.pinterest.com
Maker not stated on source page, www.britainexpress.com
Photographer not named; image published by Ciarán Leech & Associates Ltd, www.ciaranleech.ie

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