Ringfort (Rath), Ballyglass, Co. Westmeath

Co. Westmeath |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Ballyglass, Co. Westmeath

On a hilltop in Ballyglass, a low oval earthwork sits in open pasture, unremarkable at first glance but quietly dense with local memory.

Two large upright stones set into the bank at the south-east are thought by people in the area to mark the site of a King's Grave, though whether they originally framed an entrance to the enclosure or carry some older significance is genuinely uncertain. That ambiguity is part of what makes the place worth attention.

The earthwork is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, the type of enclosed farmstead that was built and occupied across Ireland roughly between the early medieval period and the Norman arrival, though many continued in use beyond that. This particular example is oval rather than circular, measuring about 35 metres north to south and 30 metres east to west, and is enclosed by a bank that stands roughly 1.2 metres on its outer face and 0.6 metres on its interior. The bank is generally low and has been worn down to a scarp in places, with some defacement at the north-north-west. Unusually, there is no visible trace of a fosse, the external ditch that typically accompanies such earthworks. Inside, the ground slopes toward the south-south-west, and faint cultivation ridges running north-east to south-west suggest the interior was at some point turned over for tillage. The monument appears on both the 1837 Ordnance Survey six-inch map and the revised 1913 twenty-five-inch edition, confirming its documented presence for well over a century. What gives the site a further layer of interest is its position within a cluster: three other ringforts lie within 165 metres, one to the north, one to the north-west, and one to the west, making this hilltop part of a concentration of early settlement that is still legible in the landscape.

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Pete F
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