Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

Marked as a truncated D-shaped monument (dims c. 70-80m E-W; c. 50-55m N-S) with at least two banks truncated at S on the 1837 and 1914 eds of the OS 6-inch maps. Situated on the S-facing slope of an E-W ridge. Described as a semicircular area surrounded by three earthen banks and two fosses (Gannon 1972). It is now visible as a vegetation mark of a D-shaped area defined by two parch marks of banks with outer fosses W-N-E (int. diam. c. 35m; max. ext. dims c. 75m E-W; c. 40m N-S) but truncated at S by an E-W field bank on aerial photographs (ASIAP (259) 9-11). A berm (Wth c. 13m E-W) developes between the inner and outer parch-marks at W. A third outer parch mark can be seen N-E on these images. The inner enclosure (int. dims c. 35m E-W; c. 30m) defined by the parch mark of a bank and the parch mark of the middle bank can be seen on OSI aerial images (2017). No feature is visible at ground level in reclaimed pasture, but the monument may have been a complex ring-barrow or trivallate rath.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 18 September 2018

References

Gannon, A. 1972 Archaeological survey of Roscommon. Unpublished typed index cards prepared for Roscommon County Council.