Ringfort (Rath), Clonraw, Co. Cavan

Co. Cavan |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Clonraw, Co. Cavan

At Clonraw in County Cavan, a low oval rise in the landscape is all that remains of what was once an enclosed farmstead, its earthen bank now surviving only along its north-eastern to southern arc.

This is a rath, the most common type of ringfort found across Ireland, typically consisting of a raised interior platform surrounded by one or more banks of earth, often with an outer ditch. They were built predominantly during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and served as the homesteads of farming families rather than as military fortifications in any formal sense.

The interior of this example measures approximately 36.4 metres on its longer north-north-east to south-south-west axis and around 31 metres across its shorter span, making it a reasonably substantial example of the type. What complicates any reading of the site today is the intrusion of a modern laneway and trench cutting across it in the same north-north-east to south-south-west direction, effectively bisecting the very ground that would once have formed the heart of the enclosure. The original entrance, which in many raths is identifiable as a deliberate gap in the bank, is no longer recognisable here, lost either to the same modern disturbance or to the general erosion that has already removed the bank from its western and northern sides.

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Pete F
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