Castle - ringwork, Bellanalack, Co. Westmeath
Sitting at the northwest end of a prominent ridge in County Westmeath, this impressive earthwork offers commanding views across the surrounding pastoral landscape, with only Knockdomny Hill blocking the vista to the southeast.
Castle - ringwork, Bellanalack, Co. Westmeath
Known locally as “King Malachy’s Fort” until recent times, this substantial circular fortification spans roughly 108 metres northwest to southeast and 104 metres northeast to southwest. The monument served as a seat of the O’Melaghlin family and strategically marks the boundary between two townlands, with a drystone wall still running through its centre along this ancient division.
The fortification displays classic ringwork construction, featuring multiple defensive layers that would have made it formidable in its heyday. An inner bank encircles the central area, which measures approximately 36 by 32 metres, followed by a fosse (defensive ditch), a level berm some 7 to 10 metres wide, an outer bank, and finally an outer fosse. The main entrance faces northeast, where a stone-faced causeway leads upslope through the defences. The inner bank remains particularly well-preserved along its southern and western sections, standing notably higher and steeper on its exterior face from the northwest round to the east-northeast.
First mapped in detail on the 1910 Ordnance Survey, the monument now lies shrouded in dense, almost impenetrable vegetation that has claimed the site over the decades. Two other ringforts stand nearby; one about 140 metres to the north-northeast and another 195 metres to the west, suggesting this area held significant strategic importance in medieval times. Despite the overgrowth, aerial photography still reveals the impressive scale of this earthwork, and its historical significance earned it a Preservation Order in 1984.