Fort, Glebe, Co. Longford
Co. Longford |
Ringforts
In a field of low-lying pasture in County Longford, a slight rise in the ground marks what was once a defended circular enclosure.
It is easy to walk past, or even across, without fully registering what is underfoot, yet the shape of it persists, quietly insisting on itself against the flat surrounding land.
The site appears on the 1837 edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map, labelled simply as "Fort", which places it firmly in the tradition of the ringfort, the most common monument type in the Irish countryside. Ringforts, known variously as raths or lios, were typically enclosed farmsteads of the early medieval period, their earthen banks and ditches defining a domestic space rather than a military one. This example measures roughly 34 metres east to west and 31 metres north to south, making it a modest but typical size. It is defined by a scarp, a low edge or slope in the ground, running to a height of between 0.4 and 0.5 metres, with a narrow external fosse, that is, a shallow surrounding ditch, still traceable along the arc from south-southwest through north to southeast. The interior rises gently toward the centre, a feature sometimes associated with accumulated occupation deposits beneath the surface. A survey carried out in 1976 recorded traces of a low outer bank on the southeast and west sides, suggesting the enclosure may once have had a more complex, multivallate structure, with more than one enclosing bank. Those outer traces have since disappeared, and the original entrance, wherever it once lay, is no longer identifiable on the ground.