Site of Castle — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Simonstown Castle stood on a small hill in County Westmeath, its rectangular earthworks overlooking pasture until ploughing and time reduced it to a faint scarp. The site still holds a ghost of its shape, with a higher ridge to the southwest blocking part of the view and another castle nearby sharing the same open land. It is the kind of place where human hands built, departed, and the field swallowed the evidence, leaving only a ridge of soil and a name behind.

Situated on top of a small hill, in undulating pasture, with extensive views in all directions except where overlooked by a higher ridge to SW. Simonstown Castle (WM018-040----) lies c. 320m to NE. Depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map as the outline of a rectangular-shaped structure and annotated ‘Site of Castle’. Rectangular-shaped area not depicted, yet annotated on the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map as ‘Castle (Site of)’ where it is shown abutting a field boundary to SW. Described in 1979 as a poorly preserved rectilinear-shaped area (dims. 61.3m NE-SW; 37.6m NW-SE) enclosed by a bank which is reduced to a scarp in places. The bank is best preserved along the NW and NE sides and the scarp is well defined along the SE and SW sides. The area outside the bank at NW appears disturbed and there are hints of a possible fosse. An old field bank runs into the site from the N and crosses the outer scarp and continues up to the inner scarp at the NNW. There are no signs of any stonework or the foundations of structures within the interior. Possible outline of levelled rectangular-shaped earthwork described in 1979 is barely visible today on Digital Globe aerial photography. This earthwork is located 20m to N of castle site location depicted on the 1838 ed. OS 6-inch map. Compiled by: Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien Date of upload: 04 February 2019

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