Ringfort (Rath), Killycushil, Co. Monaghan

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Killycushil, Co. Monaghan

On top of a drumlin in the grounds of Rossmore Castle in County Monaghan, a grassy circle sits quietly in the landscape, its origins considerably older than the demesne that now surrounds it.

A ringfort, or rath, is an enclosed settlement typical of early medieval Ireland, usually dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century, defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches and used as a farmstead or place of habitation. This one measures approximately 39 metres north to south and 37.5 metres east to west, making it a fairly substantial example, and it was at some point repurposed as a tree-ring, the earthwork serving as a ready-made planting boundary within the demesne's designed landscape.

The structure retains a clear scarp, an escarpment or steep face in the bank, which survives to a height of around 2.15 metres on the western side and 1.5 metres on the east, with a width of 2.3 metres at the eastern face. Traces of an external fosse, essentially a ditch that would have reinforced the enclosure's boundary, survive along the eastern to south-western arc, though it is shallow now, around 0.45 metres deep at its base. An entrance gap, just over 5 metres wide at its top and positioned toward the south-south-east, is still visible in outline but has been blocked, so the original threshold into the enclosure is no longer passable. The fact that these features remain legible at all, given the site's subsequent career as a landscape ornament within an eighteenth or nineteenth-century estate, is quietly remarkable.

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Pete F
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