Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on a NE-facing slope, off the crest of a hill in rolling pastureland. The site is bisected by an E-W roadway, with a ditch to the S. A circular area (diam. 39.5m E-W) enclosed by a bank of earth and stone (Wth 2m; int. H 0.43m; ext. H 1.5m) and a shallow external fosse (Wth 1.5m; D 0.3m). The N half of the site is heavily overgrown with scrub and the S half is grass-covered. The external face of the bank is quite badly truncated in places by cattle and there is a break in the bank in the SE quadrant (Wth 1.7m) to allow tractor access; this may be on the site of the original entrance. The external face of the bank at NE has been recently revetted as part of an entrance feature to an adjacent house. Fir trees growing around the edge of the bank have been recently cut with wood left in the interior obscuring the mound mentioned in the Ikerrin Survey as possible upcast from road construction (Stout 1984, 37).

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload/revision: 22 September 2008