Ringfort (Rath), Camus, Co. Tipperary

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Camus, Co. Tipperary

A low earthen ring in a Tipperary pasture field might not announce itself loudly, but this rath at Camus rewards careful attention.

From its position on a broad natural ridge running north to south, the enclosure commands clear sightlines in every direction, and the Rock of Cashel is plainly visible to the south-east, that famous outcrop rising from the plain just as it would have when the ringfort was in active use. The pairing of the two sites across open farmland gives a quiet sense of how densely this part of Munster was once occupied.

A rath is a type of ringfort defined by an earthen bank rather than stone, and this example at Camus follows the familiar pattern of early medieval Irish farmsteads, probably enclosing a family homestead and its outbuildings sometime between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries. The enclosure is nearly circular, measuring 32 metres east to west and 31 metres north to south. Its defining bank survives to an internal height of 0.4 metres and an external height of 1.2 metres, though along the ENE to south-east and WSW to west arcs it has been worn down to little more than a scarp. A fosse, the external ditch that would have added to the bank's defensive or boundary effect, remains traceable around the south-east to south-west and north-west to north-east portions of the circuit, though it is now quite shallow, with a depth of only 0.15 metres. An original entrance gap of around six metres survives at the north. Notably, a second ringfort lies just 62 metres to the south-south-west, a reminder that such enclosures often clustered together, perhaps reflecting related family groups or successive generations of use on the same ridge.

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Pete F
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