Ringfort (Rath), Littletown, Co. Westmeath
Co. Westmeath |
Ringforts
On a gentle rise in the Westmeath countryside, a slightly raised circle of earth sits quietly in the grassland, its outline still readable after well over a thousand years.
What you are looking at is a rath, the most common type of Irish ringfort, a circular enclosure defined by an earthen bank and an outer ditch, known as a fosse, that once served as a farmstead for an early medieval family of some local standing. This particular example measures roughly 37 metres north to south and 36 metres east to west, making it a fairly substantial specimen of its kind.
The bank retains its general form, though it carries several disturbance gaps where the earthwork has been broken through over the centuries, and the fosse to the north has been filled in entirely, levelled at some point by agricultural activity. What distinguishes this site from a simple earthen enclosure is a long, narrow depression running through the eastern quadrant of the interior. This depression is thought to be the collapsed remains of a souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage, typically used in early medieval Ireland for storage, refuge, or both. Souterrains are often found in association with ringforts and can run for considerable distances beneath the surface. The interior of the enclosure is otherwise level, and the whole thing sits on a natural rise that would have given its original inhabitants clear sightlines across the surrounding landscape in every direction. A second ringfort lies approximately 190 metres to the south-west, suggesting this was a settled and organised farming landscape during the early medieval period.