Ringfort (Rath), Colgagh, Co. Sligo
Co. Sligo |
Ringforts
On a gently elevated ridge in Colgagh, County Sligo, an oval ring of earth and stone sits quietly in pasture, its outline just prominent enough to catch the eye of anyone who knows what they are looking at.
This is a rath, a type of ringfort that once served as a farmstead enclosure during the early medieval period in Ireland, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands of them survive across the country in varying states of preservation, and this one falls somewhere in the middle of that spectrum, worn but legible.
The enclosure measures approximately 22 metres east to west and 20 metres north to south, a modest oval defined by a bank of earth and stone roughly four and a half metres wide. Inside, the bank rises only about 0.4 metres above the interior ground level, which gives a sense of how much the original structure has been reduced over the centuries. There is no fosse, the defensive ditch that typically runs around the outside of such monuments, visible at ground level, suggesting either that one was never cut here or that it has been entirely filled in over time. The bank survives best along certain sections, while from the south-east around to the north it has been noticeably worn down to a low, broad profile. What is particularly clear, however, is the original entrance: a gap about three metres wide on the eastern side, with a ramp leading down to the exterior, a feature common to raths and one that here has survived in a recognisable form.