What is recorded here

Ballygeale held a forty-metre ringfort on a sunny south-facing slope, visible in 1840 but erased when the Limerick to Charleville railway cut across it. The railway men did not ask the land whether it wanted a track; they took the ground and left a scar instead of a circle. What was lost was not small, though it no longer shows.

On a gentle S-facing slope, in pasture, 145m N of a watercourse with good views from E-S-W, restricted elsewhere. Depicted on the 1840 ed. OS 6-inch map as a circular-shaped earthwork (approx. diam. 40m). Not depicted on the revised 1897 ed. OS 25-inch map, where area is occupied by the Limerick to Charleville railway line. Monument surveyed by the ASI in 2000 and described as no surface remains visible. All field boundaries and the disused railway line have been removed. Monument is not visible on Digital Globe orthophotos taken 2011-13 or on Google Earth orthoimages taken 28/06/2018, although a scar of the former railway line is evident running NW-SE across this area. Monument was probably levelled during the construction of the railway line as route of line ran across the SW quadrant of the possible ringfort. See attached Google Earth orthoimage. Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly Date of upload: 30 July 2020

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