County: Galway Site name: 'Cromwell's Fort', Rinmore
Sites and Monuments Record No.: GA096-057 Licence number: 12E0428 ext.
Author: Martin E. Byrne
Site type: 17th-century bastioned fort
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 531096m, N 724759m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.268689, -9.032940
Monitoring was carried out of reinstatement/protection measures to embankments and surfaces of Cromwell’s Fort, Rinmore, Co. Galway, damaged by preparation works undertaken with respect to proposed fencing works in October 2012. The exposed ‘cut-faces’ of embankments were protected by bringing the upper surfaces of the exposed face of the embankment out 2m and sloping the mound off at 45 degrees to the horizontal, with the top left proud of the original embankments to allow for settlement over time. All large stones on the surface of the mounds were removed by hand and used as fill in the base of the reinstated embankments. The soil infill at the two fosse locations was removed by hand and placed back on the embankments. The reinstated material was then coated with a layer of topsoil and seeded. The exposed ground surfaces were similarly covered with a layer of topsoil and seeded. In addition, the localised areas of disturbance associated with former tee-boxes for the adjacent pitch-and-putt course were capped with topsoil and seeded.
A timber post-and-rail fence was subsequently erected along the southern edge of the monument in order to define the extent of Department of Defence lands. The posts were installed using a post-pounder fitted to a tractor and were located at 2.1m centres. No posts were erected within the fosse or on the reinstated embankments.
It is intended that the dense undergrowth across the site will be cut in early 2015 following which an annual maintenance plan will be established.
Byrne Mullins & Associates, 7 Cnoc na Greine Square, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare
