Ringfort (Rath), Laganore, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Laganore, Co. Tipperary

On a steep south-facing slope in the upland terrain of Laganore, a denuded ringfort sits in a state of quiet erosion, its earthworks worn down but still legible in the landscape.

What makes the site quietly unusual is not just its condition but its geometry: the southern side of the enclosing bank runs in an unusually straight line before coming to a distinct point in the south-east quadrant, a feature that departs from the more typical circular form associated with these monuments. A second ringfort is visible roughly ninety metres to the south-west, which suggests this was once a more densely settled stretch of upland than it appears today.

A ringfort, sometimes called a rath, is an enclosed farmstead of the early medieval period, typically dating to somewhere between the sixth and tenth centuries, and defined by one or more circular earthen banks thrown up around a domestic interior. This example measures approximately 39 metres north to south and 49 metres east to west, making it a reasonably substantial enclosure. The surrounding bank, though heavily denuded, retains a crest width of between one and 1.8 metres, and its external face rises to just over a metre in the better-preserved north-west and eastern sectors. A fosse, the external ditch dug to provide material for the bank and to reinforce the boundary, is still traceable along the south-west to north-west arc, though it too has silted and weathered considerably. At the time it was recorded, the interior sloped steeply towards the south-east and was thickly overgrown with long grass and nettles, while sugar beet had been planted right up to the edge of the bank in the north-east quadrant and a post-and-wire fence cut through the same sector, signs of the incremental pressure that working farmland exerts on earthworks over generations.

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