Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on a ridge overlooking a stream 80m to S.
This rath was fully excavated (92E0152) in 1992-3 in advance of the construction of the N5 Swinford by-pass (Walsh 1995, 7-8). Prior to excavation, the rath was evident as an oval area (35m N−S; 30m E−W) defined by an earthen bank. The bank was levelled in the 1970’s and very little of it remained. Excavation revealed that the bank had an external fosse (Wth 2.9-4.7m at top; D 1.1-1.8m). The foundations of three circular structures (int. diam. 3.6-4.6m), interpreted as houses (MA071-042001-; MA071-042002-; MA071-042003-), were uncovered in the W half of the interior. An iron-smelting pit-furnace (MA071-0142004-) was found in the S half of the rath interior, with associated finds of furnace bottoms and smelted, unforged iron. Artefacts recovered included iron nails, hooks and a knife, a bronze stick pin, a fragment of a polished lignite bracelet, a stone bead and a yellow glass bead, and an assemblage of flint and chert implements. Animal bones were also recovered.
While many of the artefacts fit comfortably in the early medieval era, the charcoal samples taken from the house foundation trenches produced radiocarbon dates placed firmly in the Iron Age period:
House 1 191 cal. BC–cal. AD 2
House 2 200 cal. BC–cal. AD 140
House 3 192 cal. BC–cal. AD 58
(Walsh, G. 1995)

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 13 July 2021

References

Walsh, G. 1995 Iron Age settlement in Co. Mayo. Archaeology Ireland 9 (2), 7-8.