Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture with standing stone (LI048-041----) 200m to SSW and Ballinvreena Fair Green 135m to W . Depicted on the 1840 ed. OSi 6-inch map as a raised circular shaped area defined by a scarp. Shown on the 1897 OSi 25-inch map as a raised sub-circular shaped area (dims. c. 47m NW-SE; 41m NE-SW) defined by a scarp and external scarp from SSW-W-NW. Annotated ‘Baile an bhruidne’ mote on the Cassini ed. OSi 6-inch map. In 1840 the Ordnance Survey described this monument as one of ‘three forts, one near the centre of the townland’ (OSNB Abbeyfeale to Bruree, 190).
Described by Westropp (1916/1917, 463) as a ‘mote’ that consisted of the following; ‘The flat top is 87 feet [26.5m] across; it is 24 feet [7.3m] high at the north, and 7 feet [2m] at the south up the slope. There are slight traces of a rampart to the south, of a fosse, 9 feet [2.7m] wide and a couple of feet deep to the west; and an outer ring, levelled, but 12 feet [3.6m] wide’. Westropp (1919, 9) recorded that a fair was held near the ‘mote’ at Ballinvreena. Monument visible a circular-shaped area enclosed by a tree-lined bank with external fosse visible from SE-S and NW-N-NE on Digital Globe orthoimage taken between 2011-13 and on Google Earth orthoimages.

See attached Google Earth orthoimages.

Compiled by: Fiona Rooney

Date of upload: 17 August 2021

References

Westropp, T.J. 1918 Temair Erann, an Ancient Cemetery of the Ernai on Slievereagh, County Limerick. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquities of Ireland, 111-20.

ASIAP - Archaeological Survey of Ireland Aerial Photographs (c. 1996 - c. 2010).

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, 2, 122-48, 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.

OSNB - Ordnance Survey Name Books. Pro-forma books arranged by Civil Parish for recording townland and other name-forms and compiled in the course of the OS 6-inch survey 1824-1841. The name books also include minor names and incidental references to antiquities. National Archives of Ireland.