Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

In level damp pasture with gently rising ground immediately to SW. The meandering River Deel curves in a broad loop SE-NW around the location at a distance of c. 400m, and Lough Conn is 1.8km to S. Views are good at W-NW, with Nephin visible to SSW, but are blocked now to NE-E by a band (Wth c. 4m NW-SE) of trees, which borders the N 59 Ballina-Crossmolina road on the SE side of the field. There is a rath (MA029-052----) 55m to NE.

This rath is not indicated on any edition of the OS 6 maps. It is visible in aerial imagery.

Originally circular (diam. 38.1m NE-SW) in plan, it has been partly levelled and is evident now as a low, semicircular platform defined at S-ENE by a scarp, immediately outside which at SW-NE is the ephemeral outline of an infilled fosse. The interior is flat, grassy and featureless.

The scarp has been levelled in the past to a low broadly slumped rise. It is best preserved at W-NW (ext. H 1.25m; Wth slope 6.4m). At ENE it terminates at a low earthen rise (probably a remnant of the original bank) on which an ash tree and two hawthorns grow. The scarp has been entirely levelled at E-SSE. The external fosse can be traced at SW-NE as a barely discernible dip/band of damp, soggy ground (Wth 4-5m). Outside the fosse at NE there is a strip of drier ground that hints at a levelled external bank, but this is very uncertain and can’t be traced elsewhere at ground level. At a distance of 8-10m out from the enclosing fosse, another band of damp ground/cropmark of richer green grass is evident in a broad arc NNW-E. This feature, probably an infilled ditch or fosse, is depicted as a dashed line on the OS 25-inch plan and 1922 OS 6-inch map. It is unclear if it is contemporary with the rath or represents a later feature that skirted the rath. 

A concrete block wall on a NE-SW axis clips the E-SE perimeter of the rath, and the fosse probably at least partly underlies the band of trees that border the N59.

 

Notified to NMS by A-K Distel.
 
Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy