Ringfort (Rath), Mornin, Co. Longford

Co. Longford |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Mornin, Co. Longford

In a field in County Longford, a circle of raised earth sits quietly on a south-westward-facing slope, its origins early medieval but its present condition decidedly modest.

This is a rath, a type of ringfort built from earthen banks rather than stone, which once served as an enclosed farmstead for a family of some local standing. At roughly 34 metres in diameter, the circular area is defined by a low bank of earth and stone, no more than a quarter of a metre high in places and a little over two metres wide. It is the kind of monument that rewards those who know what they are looking at, because to the casual eye it is easy to read simply as a slight rise in a pasture field.

A survey carried out in 1995 recorded traces of an external fosse, a defensive ditch that would originally have run around the outside of the enclosing bank, adding another layer of boundary between the inhabitants and the world beyond. That fosse has since been infilled, leaving the bank itself as the sole surviving marker of the enclosure. No trace of the original entrance could be identified, which is not unusual for sites of this type where centuries of agricultural use have worn down or obscured the approach point. Adjoining the rath on its western side is a subrectangular area measuring roughly 22 by 21 metres, defined by a very low scarp, a slight step or edge in the ground surface. The relationship between this feature and the ringfort is unclear, and it does not appear to belong to the same period of construction, suggesting the ground here has been used and reused across different eras for different purposes.

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Pete F
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