Fort, Peast, Co. Monaghan
Co. Monaghan |
Ringforts
On a north-east-facing slope in County Monaghan, a circular earthwork sits quietly on a shelf of land along a slight ridge, its grass and scrub-covered bank still holding its shape after what may be well over a thousand years.
What makes it worth pausing over is the absence of the feature you might expect: there is no visible fosse, the defensive ditch that typically runs around the outside of such enclosures. Despite that, the bank itself survives in reasonable condition, running to between four and four and a half metres wide, with the interior ground sitting noticeably lower than the outer edge.
This is a ringfort, or rath, a type of enclosed settlement that was common across Ireland during the early medieval period, roughly from the fifth to the twelfth century. They were not primarily military structures in the modern sense, but rather farmsteads, with the enclosing bank serving to define a household's space and keep livestock in or out. This particular example measures approximately thirty metres across on its east-west axis and twenty-seven and a half metres north to south, placing it within the typical size range for a single-family enclosure. The entrance, about two metres wide at its base, faces east-south-east, an orientation that would have offered some shelter from prevailing westerly weather while catching the morning light. The site sits on a shelf of land on a north-east-facing slope along a slight north-west to south-east ridge, a position that would have given its occupants reasonable views across the surrounding terrain.