County: Westmeath Site name: ROCHFORD DEMESNE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WM026–051 Licence number: A006/003, E3314
Author: John Channing, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 642713m, N 747124m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.472430, -7.356621
Excavations were conducted in advance of the N52 Mullingar–Belvedere road realignment scheme south of Mullingar from September 2005 to January 2006 on behalf of Westmeath County Council and the NRA. The site proved to be an enclosure dating to the 6th century AD. Three concentric subcircular ditches evidenced expansion of the site together with an increased emphasis on defence. The site was disturbed by post-medieval quarrying and later 18th-century estate landscaping. Finds included a Dublin-type ring pin, a decorated bone comb and a swan-headed dress fastener. This last find may indicate that the site was in use prior to the 6th century.
Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny
