Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

In undulating pasture, in the foothills of the Ox Mountains, straddling the contours of a natural rise around the base of which NE-E a stream flows. Circular area (34.5m N-S; 36.8m E-W) defined by an earthen bank and enclosed by a fosse and remnants of an external bank. The enclosing elements are adapted to the natural contours of the rise. The inner bank (Wth 5.7m; int. H 0.95m; ext. H 1.3m at N) survives at SW–ENE but elsewhere is reduced to a scarp (H 2m). The fosse is evident only as a shallow depression (Wth 2.4m) at NNW-N but survives at NE-S as a terrace (Wth c. 4m) with a distinct external scarp (H 1.4m). Remnants of an outer bank (Wth c. 2-2.5m) in the form of a low rim of earth and stone border the fosse at S-SW. The interior is level but is slightly higher at N-NNE where a clump of hawthorn and brambles obscures a heap of stones and boulders, probably a field clearance cairn. The entrance may have been at the NW where there is a broadly slumped section of scarp (Wth 3m) facing a natural dip in external ground level. There is another ringfort (MA049-034) c. 100m to NE.

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 5 April 2013