Ringfort (Rath), Parsonstown, Co. Westmeath

Co. Westmeath |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Parsonstown, Co. Westmeath

A modern bungalow now occupies what was once a ringfort on a south-south-east facing ridge slope in Parsonstown, County Westmeath, and that quiet replacement is perhaps the strangest thing about this site.

Ringforts, sometimes called raths, were enclosed farmsteads of the early medieval period, typically circular earthworks defined by one or more banks and ditches. This one has effectively ceased to exist in any visible sense, absorbed into the domestic landscape of the twentieth century.

The 1837 Ordnance Survey Fair Plan map recorded it as an oval earthwork, annotated simply as "fort", which was the conventional shorthand surveyors used for these features at the time. By 1970, it was already almost completely levelled, surviving only as a sub-circular area roughly 35 metres across in both axes, defined by a low scarp sloping gently towards the south-east. A small stream marking the townland boundary with Garraree ran less than five metres to the south-east, a detail that would have made the site attractive to early medieval settlers seeking both elevation and nearby water. The ridge position also offered good views to the west, a practical advantage for anyone keeping watch over livestock or land. A second ringfort survives approximately 140 metres to the north-east, a reminder that such enclosures were once distributed across this landscape in some number. By November 2011, aerial photography confirmed that the bungalow had been built directly on the levelled earthwork, completing a process of erasure that had been under way for decades.

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