Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, located on rising ground overlooking a broad valley to S, with a gentle fall of ground into the valley bottom. The townland boundary is c. 15m to NW.
Circular platform (36.3m N–S; 38.5m E–W) defined by a scarp and enclosed by a fosse with an external bank.
The scarp (H 1.4m) at N retains a slight internal lip, suggesting that there was originally a bank here with a width of c. 3.5-3.8. The fosse (Wth 3m) is well defined and flat-based. The external bank (Wth 2m at N, 3.3m at S; int. H 0.35-0.4m; ext. H 0.4m at N, 0.8m at S) is low and relatively narrow, with stones protruding randomly from its sides. At S the fosse and external bank take the form of a terrace with a scarp on its outer edge topped by a slight lip.
The interior is level, except for the SE quadrant where there is a marked slope down to E. A low linear S-facing scarp (H 0.4m) extends from the perimeter at ENE for c. 15m to SW through the interior, ending at a low stony rise at the stump of a hawthorn tree roughly in the centre of the interior. At E a slump (Wth 2m) in the scarp drops to a passage (Wth 2.7m) across the fosse, defined on the N side by a S-facing scarp (H 0.55m), incorporating large stones, and on the S side by a more degraded S-facing scarp (H 0.3m). There is a corresponding break in the external bank. These features may be modified remnants of an original entrance. There is also a break (Wth 2.6m) in the scarp at W with a corresponding low area in the external bank, but these appear to be of relatively recent date.
Two irregular-shaped quarry pits cut through the scarp and extend into the interior, one at SE (12m NE–SW; 8.5m NW–SE; D over 2m) and another at the SW (7m NE–SW; 6.5m NW–SE; D c. 2m), and disturbance to the fosse and external bank is also evident at these points. Relict cultivation ridges, on a roughly NE–SW axis, traverse the interior.
Grass cover, with perimeter sparsely ringed with hawthorn. Another rath (MA102-019----) is located c. 230m to E.

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 26 September 2022