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Outlined

Bawn

What is recorded here

Bolinarra is a ruined castle bawn in Westmeath pasture, reduced to an irregular mound of earth and stone that dense scrub now hides from plain sight. The Athlone to Clara railway cuts within ten metres of the site, perhaps tracing the very oval enclosure drawn on old surveys. What remains is a boundary without a wall, marking the place where human ambition met the patience of grass, stone and forgetting.
Situated in pasture, with good views in all directions. The Athlone to Clara railway line is within 10m to NE. Depicted on the first ed. OS 6-inch map as a long roughly oval-shaped enclosure attached to N side of castle (WM036-023----). Monument described in 1973 as a roughly circular-shaped mound of earth and stone which is largely obscured by scrub. The outline of the mound is quite irregular. and the probable remains of the castle (WM036-023----) stand on the S half. Monument is obscured today by dense scrub on Digital Globe aerial photography. The earthwork shown on the first ed. OS map may have been an earth and stone bawn of the stone castle. The railway line now runs across the area where this possible bawn was depicted on the first ed. OS map. Compiled by Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien. Date of upload: 29 November 2019

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What survives
Recorded monument

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