Structure, Carrowcor, Co. Sligo
Co. Sligo |
Utility Structures
Within the interior of a probable rath in Carrowcor, County Sligo, a low earthen bank survives that may once have formed part of a structure leaning against the enclosure wall.
Small and easy to overlook, it is the kind of feature that rewards patience more than spectacle.
A rath, sometimes called a ring-fort, is a roughly circular enclosure defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches, built predominantly during the early medieval period in Ireland and typically associated with farmsteads. The Carrowcor example is classed as a possible rath, meaning the identification remains tentative. Within its south-western quadrant, a remnant bank runs for about eight metres from the western enclosure bank inward towards the south-east. It is modest in scale, measuring around 1.3 metres wide and just 0.2 metres high, which suggests either considerable erosion over time or that it was never a substantial construction. The current interpretation is that this bank may represent the remains of a building set against the interior face of the enclosure, a common arrangement in early medieval settlements where outbuildings or animal shelters were tucked into the shelter of the surrounding bank.