Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

On a S-facing slope, in gently undulating, low-lying improved pasture, directly bound by a stream to SE and by the Camoge River to SW, which also forms a townland boundary between Monaster North and South. A ringfort (LI031-011----) lies 45m to NNW and conjoined enclosures (LI031-010002-) known as the assembly place of Óenach Cairbre, lie 560m due W. Depicted on the 1897 ed. OSi 25-inch map as an oval-shaped earthwork (27m NW-SE; 23m NE-SW) standing on the NE bank of the river. Annotated on Westropp’s sketch plan of Monasteranenagh as a ‘ring mound’, which appears to form part of the territory of the Óenach Cairbre (Westropp 1920, 373). Westropp (ibid) 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’. Power (1930, 43-4) describes the earthen monuments in the vicinity of Óenach Cairbre 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’.
Monument surveyed by the ASI in 2007 and described as the remains of oval-shaped area (13m NNW-SSE) enclosed by a levelled bank (Wth 6.3m; int. H 0.4m; ext. H 1.3m) from N-E, reduced to a scarp at NW and SE and defined by Camoge River to W. There is a slight trace of an external fosse from NNW-N-E-SE and a dense growth of nettles define the fosse from SE-S-SW. A channel (Wth 4m), which is open to the river, truncates the fosse from W-WNW-NW. The interior is generally level. Monument is visible as a partially tree-covered oval-shaped earthwork on OSi aerial 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 plan by Westropp (1920, 373) and sketch plan, cross-sections and photographs surveyed and 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.