Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

In gently undulating low-lying pasture, overlooking the Camoge River to S, which also forms a townland boundary between Monaster North and South. An ancient road (LI031-010001-) leads from the monument to an earlier crossing point at Abbey bridge (LI031-009001-) and an associated enclosure (LI031-010003-) lies on this road 75m to SW of the monument. Monaster Abbey (LI031-050004-) lies 240m to S, on the opposite side of the river and a possible burial mound (LI031-004----) referred to by Westropp (1920, 372) as Síd Asail lies 1.1km to NW and forms part of the ancient landscape of the Óenach Cairbre. Depicted on the revised 1897 ed. OSi 25-inch map as a substantial enclosure (55m WNW-ESE; 53m NNE-SSW) with the remains of a second enclosure adjoining to W. Annotated as ‘Oenach Cairbre’ on Westropp’s sketch plan of Monasteranenagh, which depicts the assembly place of the Oenach Cairbre as a pair of conjoined enclosures (Westropp 1920, 373). Referred to by Begley (1906, 18) as ‘Aenach Cairpre, i.e. the fair of the territory of Cairbre, which is called Aenach Cloghur in old authorities’. Westropp (1916-19, 170) indicates that Óenach Clochair was the chief cemetery of the Dergethne, as Temair Erann was of the Ernai. The Óenach, near Manstir abbey, on the north bank of the Camoge, with its large conjoined mounds and its sidh mound [LI031-004----] and other earthworks was Óenach Beg, the very term suggesting the existence of the great Oenach [LI031-010002-].’
In a later work, Westropp (1920, 372) describes the Óenach Cairbre territory as an ancient Celtic landscape and likens it to Tara, Telltown and Brugh na Bóinne in Co. Meath, Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon, The Curragh, Co. Kildare and nearby Knockainey Hill, Co. Limerick. He goes on to explain the common features of such archaeological complexes which often include an assembly-place [LI031-010002-], a sanctuary and a cemetery [LI031-004----] in the form of tumuli, cairns, ring mounds and platform forts which are often conjoined, old roads [LI031-010001-] and water supply (ibid). Westropp (1920, 372, 373, 375) confirms that, ‘An ancient roadway’ leads from a fording point on the Camoge River, to the pair of conjoined ringforts (LI031-010002-), to which he refers to as the assembly place of the Óenach Cairbre. According to Westropp (1920, 373) the ford marks an earlier crossing point known as ‘The Ford of the Chariots of Fergus’. Westropp continues that the pair of conjoined enclosures at Óenach Cairbre, are covered by a dense hawthorns and both have been subjected to extensive quarrying (ibid, 374). Power (1930, 43-4) describes these as, ‘Ancient earthworks of considerable size and extent [that] crown a gentle elevation on the north bank of the stream nearly opposite the abbey; These may have had connection with the great fair and its associated Pagan rites’.
Westropp (1920, 375) describes the conjoined enclosures in detail: ‘The outer ring is well preserved to the south and east, and the outline of the fosse within it can be traced all round. It is ‘8-shaped’ in plan. The ring rises from 4 to over 6 feet (1.2-1.8m) above the field, at which level it is 15 to 16 feet (4.6-4.9m) thick, being 8 to 10 feet (2.4-3m) thick in top, with steep sides, probably once stone-faced. The mounds are flat-topped. The southern parts are intact rising over the fosse for 10 to 13 feet (3-4m). The whole work measures about 300 feet (91m) over all, east and west, and 180 feet (55m) north and south. The greatest depth is between 6 and 7 feet (1.8-2.1m) below the field to the south-east. The fosse appears to be from 9 to 14 feet (2.7-4.3m) wide in parts, up to 18 feet wide (5.5m). The southern part is filled for a depth of 3 feet (0.9m) to perhaps 5 feet (1.5m). An old hollow way [LI031-010001-] leads from it towards the ford, and is 4 to 5 feet (1.2-1.5m) deep and 8-10 feet (2.4-3m) wide below. There are traces of an enclosure [LI031-010003-] between it and the river’. A brief OPW field report of 1978 describes the monument as having, 'a dense cover of scrub and it is badly mutilated by quarrying, but I would take it to be the remains of a ringfort’. Conjoined encllosures are visible as a suboval-shaped tree-planted area (L 90m E-W; 60m N-S) on OSi orthoimage taken 2005-2012, or on Digital Globe orthoimage taken 2011-2013 or on Google Earth orthoimage taken 28/06/2018.

See attached Google Earth orthoimage, sketch plans by Westropp (1920, 373 & 374) and photographs taken by the ASI.

Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly

Date of upload: 30 October 2020

References

Westropp, T.J. 1920 The assembly-place of ´Oenach Cairbre and Síd Asail at Monasteranenagh, County Limerick. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 35C, 363-77.

Westropp, T.J. 1919 The ancient places of assembly in the counties Limerick and Clare. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 49, 1-24.

Westropp, T.J. 1916-19 The later Pagan sanctuaries of Co. Limerick. Journal of the North Munster Antiquarian Society 4, 3, 157-83.

Westropp, T.J. 1916-17 On certain typical earthworks and ring walls in Co. Limerick. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 33C, 9-42, 444-92.

Begley, J. 1906 The Diocese of Limerick ancient and medieval. Dublin.