Castle - ringwork, Bracknahevla, Co. Westmeath
The castle ringwork at Bracknahevla sits on gently sloping ground in County Westmeath, commanding views across the rough pasture that stretches to the south and southwest.
Castle - ringwork, Bracknahevla, Co. Westmeath
This circular earthwork first appeared on Ordnance Survey maps in 1837, marked as a castle site, though its origins may be considerably older. The substantial bank of earth and stone that forms the enclosure could represent the collapsed foundations of a bawn wall; a defensive structure common to Irish fortifications, or it might be the remnants of an even earlier enclosure that was later reinforced when a stone castle was built along its western edge.
Inside the enclosure, grass-covered wall footings mark where the stone castle once stood, whilst natural rock outcrops break through the interior surface. No obvious entrance survives, leaving questions about how the site was originally accessed. The ringwork doesn’t stand alone; it’s surrounded by a complex network of earthworks that extend particularly to the south, where they form two distinctive trapezoidal enclosures. Whether these additional earthworks were built alongside the castle or added during a later period remains unclear.
To the west-southwest of the main ringwork lies a small rectangular house site, separated from the castle by uneven ground marked with rocky outcrops and natural depressions. This entire complex of earthworks, documented by archaeologists Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien in 1979, represents layers of occupation and fortification that span centuries of Irish history, from possible early medieval origins through to more recent agricultural use of the landscape.