Sheep Gate

Sheep Gate
Geata an Chaora
General information
Type	town gate
Location	Trim, County Meath, Ireland
Coordinates	53°33′19″N 6°47′16″W / 53.555281°N 6.787875°W / 53.555281; -6.787875Coordinates: 53°33′19″N 6°47′16″W / 53.555281°N 6.787875°W / 53.555281; -6.787875
Completed	13th/14th century AD
Technical details
Material	limestone, mortar
Designations	Designations National Monument of Ireland Official name Sheep Gate Reference no. 469

The Sheep Gate is a town gate in Trim in Ireland. It is a National Monument.^[1]

History

Illustration from Wakeman's handbook of Irish antiquities (1903), showing Sheep Gate and Yellow Steeple.

The Sheep Gate is the only surviving gate of five that once provided access to Trim. The town wall and its gates were built in the 13th or 14th century. Sheep Gate may have been so named as a toll was charged here for sheep being brought in to be sold at market: in 1290 the murage and pavage tax was one penny per ten sheep, reduced to a farthing in 1308. The name could also derive from the archaic meaning of cheap, meaning "market" (cf. Cheapside). This name is not recorded before the 19th century; it may have been known as the Porch Gate, possibly from French porte ("door"), which may also give its name to the Porch Fields lying outside the city walls.^[2] The gate was locked between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m.^[3]

The gate

Sheep Gate with Yellow Steeple behind.

View of Sheep Gate, with Boyne in foreground.

The gate was the southeastern entrance to the town, and is located just north of the River Boyne. Sheep Gate survives as a stone archway.^[4][5]

References