Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, in the grounds of Carrowgowan House, a 19th-century house now razed to the ground. The ringfort is sited on a N-S ridge, affording good views along a stream valley to W−NW and of the surrounding undulating pastureland at S−NW. Modern houses lie immediately to SE and S of the rath.
Raised circular area (34.2m N-S; 33.2m E-W) defined by an earthen bank, outside which it is enclosed at NE−WSW by remnants of a fosse (Wth 2.5m at SW) and outer bank (Wth 5m; int. H 0.3m; 1.6m at SW).
The inner bank (Wth 4.5m; int. H 0.1m; ext. H 2.2m at SW) retains a low internal lip at NE−SW but is elsewhere reduced to a scarp. The height of the bank is enhanced at SW−NW by the natural fall of the ridge slope. The outer bank is overlain or truncated by later field boundaries at NE-SSW, but a short section remains well defined at SSW−WSW.
The interior is level and grassy, with a few ash trees. The entrance may have been at ENE where the scarp is lowest and there is a gap (2.7m) in the inner bank. A gap (Wth 2.2m) at NNE appears to be recent.

A stone-built belvedere, undoubtedly contemporary with Carrowgowan House, stands at the SW edge of the interior. It is oval in plan (int. 1.55m E-W; 2.3m N-S; wall T 0.6m) with three pointed-arch windows and two flat-headed windows, a flat-topped doorway, a small fireplace and dovecote niches in the upper courses of the interior wall face. The windows have brick surrounds.

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 13 August 2021