Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, located on a low rise in undulating terrain.
Slightly raised, subcircular or broadly oval area (20.5m N−S; c. 23m E-W) defined at SW–N–SE by a stony bank/scarp, and enclosed by a fosse with an external earth and stone bank. The rath is thickly covered in blackthorn and hawthorn scrub, which makes inspection difficult.
The inner bank is reduced to a scarp (H 1.6m at NE, 1.5m at SW), retaining a slight stony internal lip in parts. The slope of the scarp is quite vertical in appearance, particular on the W half, suggesting that it may have been modified in the relatively recent past. It drops into a broad, flat-based fosse (4m NE-E; 3.8m SW). On the outer edge of the fosse on the E arc, the external bank (Wth c. 2.5m) takes the form of a scarp with a low internal stony rim (Wth 1m) and a pronounced external slope (ext. H 1.1m). This gives the fosse on this side the appearance of a being a flat terrace rather than a depression. At SW-NW the external bank is most substantial (Wth 3.6m; int. H 0.5-1m; ext. H 1.1m) and appears to have served as a field boundary. The N arc of the rath is engulfed in dense overgrowth, and could not be inspected. On the S arc the two banks and intervening fosse have been truncated, levelled to a slightly raised area of stony, disturbed ground, bordered at S by an E−W line of conifers. Immediately to S of this is the garden of a modern house. There is a souterrain (MA040-013002-) in the SW quadrant and a possible house (MA040-013003-) in the S half of the interior.

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 22 April 2020