Ringfort (Rath), Carrowflatley, Co. Sligo

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Carrowflatley, Co. Sligo

In a field of gently rolling pasture in Carrowflatley, County Sligo, a low circular rise in the ground is all that remains of what was once a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort.

These were enclosed farmsteads, typically dating from the early medieval period roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, defined by one or more earthen banks and an outer ditch. This one survives only partially, its outline interrupted by the work of quarrying that has eaten into its fabric over generations.

The site occupies a modest elevation and measures approximately 24 metres north to south and 20 metres east to west. What defines it now is a scarped edge, essentially a cut or sloped face in the earth, rising to around two metres in height, though even this has been levelled along the eastern to west-southwest arc. A quarry hole driven in from the north-northeast has broken through the scarp and into the interior, leaving the ground surface inside uneven and sloping gently downward from west to east. The fosse, the surrounding ditch that would originally have accompanied the bank as both a practical boundary and a marker of status, is no longer visible at ground level. Nor is there any trace of the original entrance, which in an intact ringfort would typically appear as a deliberate gap in the bank, often on the eastern or southeastern side.

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Pete F
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