Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on a gentle W-facing slope within the village of Drumsna. A circular enclosure is depicted on the 1835 edition of the OS 6-inch map with the ruins of a Presbyterian Meeting house in the interior. The rath is a circular area (int. diam. 39m NW-SE) defined by an overgrown earthen bank (Wth 3.3m; int. H 0.25m; ext. H 0.75m) with an external V-shaped fosse (Wth of top 2.1m; ext. D 0.3m). There is an entrance (Wth 2.5m) and causeway at NNW which leads to the Fair Green of Drumsna village. The rath is bisected by a N-S field wall, and the ruins of the meeting house are in the interior. This is a roofless structure (int. dims 15.6m NW-SE; 6.2m NE-SW) with walls almost complete (Wth 0.75m; H 3-5m) and a single doorway in the NW gable. It has headstones of the Whitelaw and Parke families dating from 1819, and the African explorer, Surgeon General Thomas Heazle Parke (1857-93), is also buried here. Archaeological testing (01E0069) immediately to the NW (Read 2003) and testing (02E1235) to the SE (Halpin 2004) produced no related material.

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim' compiled by Michael J. Moore (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2003). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 17 October 2019

References

Halpin, E. 2004 Drumsna. No archaeoligical significance. in I. Bennett (Ed.) Excavations 2002: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, No. 1054, P 289. Bray, Wordwell

Read, C. 2003 Drumsna: No archaeological significance. In I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 2001: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 225-6, No. 730. Bray, Wordwell