Ben

73 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Ben, from 268 m² to 184,818 m² (18.48 ha, 45.67 acres). The dashed line is the townland's boundary; 36 neighbouring parcels touch it.

• P5RA - Rural Area (Mixed/general primary sector uses, including 'rural')
  Meath County Development Plan 2021-2027, Meath · 2 parcels The zoning objective in the plan

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

No planning application touches the townland of Ben in the national file, which goes back to 2010.

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

Designated sites

• Special Area of Conservation: White Lough, Ben Loughs and Lough Doo SAC 001810
• Proposed Natural Heritage Area: White Lough, Ben Loughs And Lough Doo 001810
• Proposed Natural Heritage Area: Lough Glore 000686

Recorded monuments

• WM004-009 Cross - Wayside cross
  Description

  Described in 1928 as 'This is marked on the Ordnance map as St. Fechin's Cross, but nothing now remains except a small rectangular platform of stones and clay. It is on the south side of the road to Oldcastle near the county boundary, 1 and a half miles N.E. of Fore' (Crawford 1928, 60-1, no. 12). Described in 1980 as 'Only the base of this cross survives. It is a low platform (dims. 2.2m NE-SW x 1.4m NW-SE; H 0.55m) of earth and grass covered stones built on a low natural rise or ridge. It is on the S side of a modern roadway just inside the fence. The field fence shown just S and SE of the cross on the 1914 ed. OS 6-inch map has been removed' (SMR file). The cross is only 150m W of the boundary with County Meath. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 23 June 2010

• WM004-011 Cross - Wayside cross
  Description

  Broken wayside cross now survives in two fragments. Chamfered shaft of cross standing inside small stone walled structure on E side of road with partially damaged solid ringed-head of cross lying on the ground immediately W of shaft. Drawn by Du Noyer (George Victor Du Noyer, “on road side near Fore. Td. Of Lackill and Moortown, Co. W. Meath. Sheet 3/4. Calvary Cross,” Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, accessed January 27, 2020, http://rsai.locloudhosting.net/items/show/23414.) in the 19th century and described in 1928 as 'A cross about 6ft. (1.8m) in height, 3ft. 2in. (0.95m) across the arms, and having a solid ring 2ft. (0.6m) in diameter. The cross is broken below the head. The base is 3ft. 6in. (1.07m) square. It stands in a recess in the eastern fence of the road rather more than half a mile N. of Fore, and a short distance from No. 10 (WM004-025----)' (Crawford 1928, 60, no. 11). Described in 1980 as 'The shaft and head of a large stone solid ringed cross. The cross is in two fragments. The shaft is set in the ground with no sign of a base and the solid ring head is set in the field bank behind it and obscured by the shaft and by the field bank. The shaft (H 0.89m; top Wth 0.23m; base Wth 0.28m; T 0.26m) is of rectangular cross-section with chamfered edges and is plain. It tapers from the bottom up. The head (Wth 0.59m; H 0.69m; T 0.2m) is damaged and one arm is missing. The exposed face is quite plain. The edges are not chamfered. The cross is set into a field bank on the E side of the roadway. It is in a small recess which is partly faced with dry stone walling. An old barrell is now lying on top of the head along with some other rubbish and bits of wood' (SMR file). A wayside cross (WM004-010----) is 660m to the NNW and a second wayside cross (WM004-025----) is 120m to the SSE. Compiled and updated by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 14 April 2015

• WM004-026 Earthwork
  Description

  There is no paper file in the ASI archive for this monument. In the Westmeath RMP (1996) maps, the potential monument is indicated at the Ben of Fore. No surface remains visible on any earthwork on Digital Globe orthoimage taken between 2011-13. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 16 August 2023

Architectural heritage

No building of the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage stands in the townland of Ben.

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).

No address of the register names Ben with five sales or more. The sales of the area are on the page of Co. Westmeath.

Name

Ben · An Bhinn

Area

1,851,621 m² (185.16 ha, 457.55 acres)

Civil parish

St. Feighins, and its townlands

Barony

Fore

Electoral division

Fore West, the unit of the census

Neighbouring townlands

Aghalasty And Ankersland, Ballany (Co. Meath), Clonnageeragh, Fore, Martinstown

Placenames

Ben on logainm.ie, the Placenames Database of Ireland

Townlands, civil parishes, baronies and electoral divisions, National Statutory Boundaries, Tailte Éireann, 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.