Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, located on top of a hill providing good views in all directions, with expanses of bog lying within a few hundred meters to SE and to N. Killaturly Lough is 670m to SE.
Broadly oval area (28m E–W; c. 24m N–S) defined by an earthen bank (Wth 2.6-2.9m; int. H 0.45-0.5m; ext. H 1-1.5m) and enclosed by a fosse (Wth 2.5m), which is evident at SW–NW, with remnants of an external bank (Wth 2-2.5m; int. H c. 0.5m) at SW–WSW. The inner bank incorporates stones, some of which may be remnants of an internal facing or kerb; it is reduced to a scarp at NNW–NNE.
The interior has a slightly humpbacked profile reflecting the contours of the knoll. There is a souterrain (MA062-100002-) evident as a N−S linear depression in the N half of the interior. A ruined N–S field wall extends across the interior to W of centre.
The rath spans the full width of a modern field, with a N−S field wall at E clipping the inner bank and another field wall at W clipping the fosse and truncating the external bank. A broad break (Wth 7.5m) in the bank at NE and a similar break (Wth 10m) at SE allows tractor passage through the rath from the adjacent fields at N and S.
A short section of the rath scarp has been dug away at N, and part of the NW slope of the knoll on which the rath stands has been quarried out.
Grass cover, with hawthorn, blackthorn and hazel on the perimeter, particularly dense at W–N where it obscures the fosse and external bank.
There a cashel (MA062-099----) c. 200m to WNW.

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 26 January 2021