Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

In thicket of overgrowth at the NW corner of a pasture field, located on top of ridge with widespread views. A commercial quarry is located immediately to W.
Roughly circular raised area (diam. 35-40m) defined by an earthen scarp (ext. H 1.3m at N, 1.8m at S) topped by a drystone wall, and enclosed by a fosse (Wth 3.4m) with an external bank (Wth 2.6m; int. H 0.5m; ext. H 1.2m at N).
The wall enclosing the interior is well preserved at ESE−S (Wth c. 2m; int. H 1.4m; ext. H 0.2m) and appears to form an internal facing for an earthen bank. Elsewhere the wall survives as a collapsed heap (Wth 0.8m-1m; H 0.6m) of medium-large stones. The external slope of the scarp is strewn with stone tumble. It is possible that much of the walling is not primary but represents the incorporation of the rath into a later field system. The 1930 OS 6-inch maps show a trackway flanked by field walls extending to NE and SW from the rath; the route of the trackway appears to have utilised the fosse on the W arc.
The outer bank appears more substantial (Wth 3.6m; int. H 0.4m; ext. H 1.1m) at SE−S, where it has a pronounced external slope. It is incorporated into a later field wall at S−SW; it cannot be examined SW−N where it is concealed by upcast from the adjacent quarry to W.
A rough ‘entrance passage’, bordered on the N side by a field wall and on the S side by a jumble of stones, extends across the fosse at ESE. It connects a break (Wth 2.4m) in the inner bank/scarp with a corresponding low area (Wth c. 2m) in the outer bank, and may indicate the site of an original entrance.
Later field walls abut the rath at N, E and SW. The perimeter and interior are engulfed in a dense thicket of blackthorn, hawthorn and hazel, which impeded the inspection.

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 30 March 2021