Back of The Hill

25 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Back of The Hill, from 2,056 m² (0.21 ha, 0.51 acres) to 354,096 m² (35.41 ha, 87.5 acres). The dashed line is the townland's boundary. 16 neighbouring parcels touch it.

Download the townland as DXF, in Irish Transverse Mercator metres, with its boundary, parcels and buildings, or as GeoJSON or KML.

No zone of a development plan covers Back of The Hill in the national zoning. Outside zoned towns and villages, the county development plan's rural policies apply to each application.

Source: Tailte Éireann and the Department of Housing (MyPlan), national zoning, CC BY 4.0.

• 2 May 2019Conditional

  proposed bungalow type dwelling house, detached garage, formation of new entrance, wastewater treatment system, polishing filter area and all ancillary site works

  Permission · Longford County Council, 19116

Source: National Planning Applications, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Applicants are not shown.

Designated sites

No designated site (Special Area of Conservation, Special Protection Area, Natural Heritage Area or proposed one) touches the townland of Back of The Hill.

Recorded monuments

• LF019-047 Ringfort - rath
  Description

  At the SE end of a low NE-SW ridge in pasture. A report in 1976 (SMR file) indicated that this raised oval area (c. 60m N-S; c. 50m E-W) was defined by a low bank of earth and stone with an external fosse. It is defined by a scarp (H 0.3-1.2m), which has been altered slightly and incorporated into a field boundary from SW-W-NW. The original entrance is not recognisable. Archaeological excavations were undertaken at the site during the summer of 1967 by Liam de Paor. An assessment of the excavation record (Coleman 2014) noted that ‘The artefacts, structures and industrial evidence recovered during the excavation of Back of the Hill suggest that the enclosure is an early medieval settlement site likely to have been inhabited by a high status group. The excavation produced a number of copper alloy objects of high quality, notably a zoomorphic penannular brooch, a buckle and a copper alloy toilet implement. . . The northern half of the site produced key evidence of occupation, with up to four possible structures identified. . . . The features identified during the excavation and the finds that were recovered determine that the activity earned out at Back of the Hill included food production, textile working, metalworking and woodworking. Human occupation was restricted to the northern half of the site, with the southern half likely to have been used for the enclosing of small animals. The excavation revealed a number of phases of activity at the site, with the primary phase of occupation dating to the early medieval period. Evidence of later activity at the site, such as modem cultivation and drainage was also identified.’ (ibid., 60). Compiled by: Patrick F. O'Donovan Updated by: Paul Walsh Revised date of upload: 21 January 2015

• LF019-047001 Burial
  Description

  Found in 1967 in the course of the excavation of a ringfort (LF019-047----). The burial remains, probably male, lay 'east of the centre of the rath' (NMI Topographic file) in a pit measuring c. 2m W–E, 1m N–S and 1m deep. A label attached to the remains records the following: 'Extended Iron-Age inhumation lying in East-West orientation, head to the West, found in interior of rath, reputed to be that of Maine, son of Niall of the nine hostages. Grave approximately 1m deep below the old ground level, excavated in a solid drift. Body was in a narrow, straight-sided lidded wooden coffin, arms extended along the sides. Fill of grave was organic. Three boulders in upper fill. Soil conditions in general were poor for preservation of bone. Approximate date of burial 4th-5th centuries A.D.' (ibid., pers. comm. A. Halpin). The excavator believed the burial had been placed in a tree trunk coffin. The form of the burial, and the orientation and position of the skeleton strongly suggests that the burial is of early medieval date (Coleman 2014, 132). Updated by: Paul Walsh Revised date of upload: 21 January 2015

• LF019-057 Ringfort - rath
  Description

  In wet, low-lying pasture. Depicted as an almost circular enclosure with the designation 'Fort' on the 1837 ed. of the OS 6-inch map. The SW half has been destroyed due to the construction of a modern NW-SE roadway. The NE half has also been levelled but a low scarp (H 0.4m) with traces of a possible fosse (Wth 2.9m; D 0.15m) may still be traced. The evidence suggests that the enclosed area was roughly circular in plan (diam. c. 26.5m). Compiled by: Patrick F. O'Donovan Date of upload: 26 August 2011

Architectural heritage

No building of the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage stands in the townland of Back of The Hill.

Designated sites: National Parks and Wildlife Service. Recorded monuments: Sites and Monuments Record, National Monuments Service. Buildings: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Works at or in relation to a recorded monument need two months' written notice to the National Monuments Service (National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994, section 12).

Radon

At the centre of the townland of Back of The Hill, about 1 in 10 homes in this area is likely to have high radon levels. Testing a home

Landslides

The 1:50,000 map rates the landslide susceptibility here as moderately low, low.

Terrain model

No LiDAR survey of the Office of Public Works covers the centre of the townland of Back of The Hill.

Flooding

The Office of Public Works publishes its flood maps on floodinfo.ie.

Radon Risk Map of Ireland, Environmental Protection Agency, and Landslide Susceptibility Classification, Geological Survey Ireland, both under CC BY 4.0. LiDAR: contains Irish Public Sector Data (Geological Survey Ireland & the Office of Public Works) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

No address of the register names Back of The Hill with five sales or more. The sales of the area are on the page of Co. Longford.

Name

Back of The Hill · Ard Naoscan

Area

1,202,880 m² (120.29 ha, 297.24 acres)

Civil parish

Ardagh, and its townlands

Barony

Ardagh

Electoral division

Ardagh East, the unit of the census

Census 2022

730 people lived in 265 households in the Ardagh East electoral division. 88% of households owned their home. 36% of homes were built since 2001. 10% of dwellings stood vacant on census night, and 2% were holiday homes.

Neighbouring townlands

Ardagh Demesne, Ballinreaghan, Ballinroddy, Coolcaw, Cross, Finnaragh

Placenames

Back of The Hill on logainm.ie, the Placenames Database of Ireland

Townlands, civil parishes, baronies and electoral divisions, National Statutory Boundaries, Tailte Éireann, CC BY 4.0. Census 2022, Small Area Population Statistics by electoral division, Central Statistics Office, CC BY 4.0. A townland is the smallest land division of Ireland, and the unit of a rural address. Old registers such as the 1901 and 1911 censuses file it under its civil parish and barony.