Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, straddling the narrow top of a low NW−SE ridge. There are good views over the surrounding gently undulating landscape, with a river 350m to E.
Raised oval platform (40.4m NNW−SSE; 26.5m ENE−WSW) defined by a scarp, outside which on the W half it is enclosed by a fosse and external bank. It is enhanced on the W side by the natural ridge slope.
The scarp (H 2.8m) on the E half is broadly slumped (Wth slope 5-6m) and rather dilapidated; the base of the slope has been faced with stone to serve as a field fence. A short length of fosse (Wth 3m; D 0.9m) is evident at the base of the scarp at SSE, with remnants of a possible external bank (Wth 4-5m) which merges on its external slope with the natural ridge slope. At S−NW, the fosse becomes a terrace (Wth c. 2.5-4.5m) cut into the ridge slope at the base of the rath scarp (H 3.15m at WSW). The terrace is defined on its outer edge by a steep slope/scarp (H 1.5m). At the NNW end of the terrace is another short length of sunken fosse (Wth 2.4m) with remnants of an external bank (Wth 4.4m; int. H 0.35m; ext. H 1.5m). A break (Wth 1.6m) in the scarp at SSE, now dilapidated and eroded by cattle, possibly marks an original entrance.
A spine of slightly elevated ground extends roughly N−S through the centre of the interior. It has a slight slope down on its W side; on the E side, there is a marked drop to NE, E and SE, which then levels out, with the result that the E third of the interior is at a noticeably lower level than the W half.
The interior is grassy; the scarp is ringed with hawthorn and blackthorn scrub and brambles. An old farm track skirts the base of the slope on the W side of the rath. There is another rath (MA071-126----) 125m to NE.

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 25 August 2021