Ringfort (Rath), Rathkenty, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Rathkenty, Co. Tipperary

On the summit of a broad hill in County Tipperary, the earthworks at Rathkenty have been worn down to little more than shallow ridges in the pasture, yet enough survives to reveal the underlying logic of an early medieval settlement.

What remains is a bivallate ringfort, meaning a roughly circular enclosure defended by two concentric banks rather than one, a form that likely signalled the higher social standing of whoever once lived here. The outer dimensions run to about 44 metres north to south and 50 metres east to west, and while none of the banks rise dramatically above the surrounding ground, the full circuit of ditches and earthworks can still be read in the landscape if you know what you are looking for.

The site has suffered unevenly across its circuit. To the north-east, both banks have been almost entirely levelled, and a 1906 Ordnance Survey map records a limekiln positioned on the outer bank in that quadrant, one of those small industrial structures once used to burn limestone into quicklime for agricultural use, which here appears to have been built directly into the ancient earthwork. A small pond sitting immediately to the east has caused further deterioration, washing out the outer bank in that area and degrading the inner one. In the south-west, the inner bank has disappeared altogether, shallow quarrying has cut into the interior, and the fosse, the defensive ditch that once ran between the banks, is filled in. There may be a causeway in this area, the slight traces of an outer bank suggest the original entrance could have been located somewhere around this quadrant, though the evidence is inconclusive. Further quarrying into the inner bank from the fosse is also visible in the southern section. What the site loses in drama it gains in legibility as a record of how these monuments are gradually absorbed, piece by piece, into the working life of the land around them.

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