Moated site, Skeheen, Co. Westmeath
In the townland of Skeheen, County Westmeath, a medieval moated site sits quietly on wet, poorly drained grassland.
Moated site, Skeheen, Co. Westmeath
The square enclosure measures approximately 25 metres on each side, defined by an earthen bank that rises between half a metre and 80 centimetres high, with a width of about 1.7 metres. A stone circle lies immediately to the north-northeast, whilst a stream marking the boundary with Ballyhattan flows just 100 metres to the west, near Donore Bridge.
The site’s defensive features are best preserved along its northern edges, where an old drainage ditch, measuring one to two metres wide, runs from northeast to southwest. This ditch, which would have originally surrounded the entire enclosure, is now only visible from the north-northwest round to the north-northeast; time and agricultural activity have erased traces of it elsewhere. A possible entrance gap, about 1.5 metres wide, can be spotted on the southern side of the enclosure.
Moated sites like this one were typically constructed by Anglo-Norman colonists during the 13th and 14th centuries, serving as fortified farmsteads for lesser landowners who couldn’t afford stone castles. The earthen banks would have been topped with wooden palisades, and the water-filled moat provided both defence and a source of fish. Today, this particular example stands as a subtle reminder of medieval settlement patterns in the Irish midlands, its grassy banks barely distinguishable from the surrounding landscape except to those who know what to look for.