Milestone or milepost in Ballyboe, County Donegal

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What is recorded here

Freestanding milestone on rectangular-plan, erected c. 1770, having rounded head. Inscription to front face reading ‘RAMELTON 1 DUNFANAGHY 17½’ Located to the west of Rathmelton Bridge (see 40800206) across the River Leannan to the west of the centre of Ramelton. Located to the north side of road adjacent to laneway…

Read the whole record

This milestone is an interesting and subtle historical survival in the streetscape to the west of the centre of Ramelton. It reads ‘RAMELTON 1 (?) DUNFANAGHY 17½’: the distances are in Irish miles, which are longer than the standard mile measurement used today. It probably dates to the second half of the eighteenth-century, a period when the Grand Juries were responsible for a great deal of improvement in the road transport network throughout Ireland, particularly the development of a series of 'turnpike roads' (from 1729) on which milestones are usually found. However, there were apparently no turnpike roads established in Donegal before 1805. The majority of roads in Ireland were built after 1765 when new legislation gave the Grand Juries the power (under the Presentment System) to repair, widen and improve old roads and establish new roads. This simple item of street furniture represents a rare surviving artefact of its type, and is an integral element of the built heritage and transport history of the local area.

From the Buildings of Ireland (National Inventory of Architectural Heritage) record 40800509

Places near here

Photo credits

National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Kenneth Allen, Geograph · Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
Kenneth Allen, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
Malene Thyssen, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Maker not stated on source page, br.pinterest.com
Kenneth Allen, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Maker not stated on source page, www.pinterest.com
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