Gateway in Fore, County Westmeath

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During the later Middle Ages Fore was a frontier town and although documentary references are slight it is clear that it was fortified in the fifteenth century. In 1462-3 Edward IV confirmed an earlier grant of murage by Henry VI, King between 1422 and 1461 (Berry 1914, 25). The north gateway appears to from part of the fifteenth century fortification of the town. The present remains of the North gate consists of a rectangular structure with rounded corners on the north-west and south-east angles. It is built of fairly evenly coursed limestone and is entered through a round arched gate, 2.6m wide, which is blocked by a modern cross wall. The passage is flat-arched and short. Only the ground floor survives and there are no indications of internal chambers. A murder hole above the gate indicates that there was an upper level but all trace of it has been removed and is now replaced by modern repairs. There is a slight batter and a string course on the external west face. There are two large internal recesses in the east and west walls at arch level and these may have held eyes on which the gate was suspended (Bradley et. al. 1985, 76-7). See attached drawing of Fore North Gate taken from Urban Survey of Co. Westmeath.

From the National Monuments Service (Archaeological Survey of Ireland) record WM004-035002

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Picture notes

Willow, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.5
National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Marathon, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Illustrator not named; The Dublin Penny Journal (1835), public scan from Internet Archive and JSTOR, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Olliebailie, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Oliver Dixon, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Malene Thyssen, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Computer-made picture. It does not show this playground.
Mike Searle, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
Colin Park, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
Bill Griffiths, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
James Fergusson, after E. Conwell, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

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