Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in pasture with E side of the monument within the road-take for the Croom Bypass, 115m W of the River Maigue and which also marks a townland boundary with Tooreen. Not depicted on OSi historic maps. Levelled enclosure identified by Celie O’Rahilly, Limerick County Archaeologist in advance of construction of the Croom bypass. Monument consists of a bivallate ringfort with second enclosure or ringfort (LI030-177----) adjoining to N.
Archaeological testing under licence No. 97E0400 was subsequently carried out by Thaddeus Breen in 1997 and the bivallate enclosure or ringfort was described as: ‘A circular raised area enclosed by a slight ring-shaped depression. A geophysical survey carried out in advance of excavation revealed that it was enclosed by a circular ditch with a break in one side, presumably representing the entrance, and there appeared to be a further circular enclosure adjoining it, and a linear feature running eastwards. The first cutting exposed a section through the ditch. Another cutting, in the centre of the enclosed area, revealed a series of five post-holes. A third cutting investigated the linear feature shown by the geophysical survey, but no features were found here. There were no finds, apart from some modern material from the first cutting' (Breen 1998, 113).
Investigated further during archaeological monitoring undertaken by Martin Fitzpatrick in 1999 and described as: ‘A subcircular area measuring 27.4m north-south by 25m, which is raised c. 0.5m above the surrounding ground. A low scarp defined the site in the north and south, while traces of a second, similar site were visible to the immediate north-west. Investigation of the monument in 1997 by Thaddeus Breen found that it represented a circular, ditched enclosure, possibly a bivallate ringfort, with a second ringfort adjoining it (Breen 1998, 113). These monuments had been levelled in the 19th century.
The line of the road-take impinged only on the area to the east of the site and included a possible ditch and external bank feature to the north-east. Stripping of topsoil from the remainder of the field was monitored. The removal of topsoil in the area of the monument exposed a low bank feature that had been apparent in the survey of the monument. Lying to the north-east of the site, it was 6.5m long, 4.2m wide and 0.48m high. A drainage channel ran north-south through the bank, while a further drain bisected the bank in the south. The bank is made up of a compact, brown, natural subsoil. The survey conducted before excavations shows that this bank feature, while appearing to run from the second enclosure, follows the line of the larger enclosure and may represent a terminal feature associated with the monument.
Immediately south of the bank, excavation revealed a possible ditch that was disturbed by numerous features. The ditch was cut into the grey, natural layer and was filled with an orange/brown, clayey silt. Finds from the fill included numerous fragments of modern glass and animal bone, as well as modern iron fragments. The ditch cut was most definite at the north edge and west face, where it was steep-sided and had a round bottom. A drain feature ran along the east side of the ditch, while further disturbance was evidenced by two drains that ran east-west through the ditch and into the monument. At the south end the ditch feature was further disturbed by a large, stone-filled soak pit. While the ditch feature in the north end appears to be original, the continuation of this ditch through to the south is not definite as it has been substantially disturbed. It may be that the original ditch feature ran for the length of the adjoining bank but was later extended to aid the significant drainage operation that saw the insertion of stone-filled drains throughout the field. The monitoring of topsoil-stripping revealed numerous drains that acted as drainage channels laid down in the not-too-distant past’ (Fitzpatrick 2000, 165).
The remaining two-thirds of the levelled monument which is located outside the road-take for the Croom bypass is unexcavated and is visible as a faint semi-circular-shaped cropmark on Google Earth orthoimage taken 25/03/2017.

See attached Google Earth orthoimage and site plans from excavation report

Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly

Date of upload: 23 October 2020

References

Breen, T. C. 1998 Croom, Site 7; Enclosure. In I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 1997: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 113, No. 336. Bray, Wordwell.

Fitzpatrick, M. 2000 Croom, Enclosure. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1999: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 164-5, No. 499. Bray. Wordwell.