Ringfort (Rath), Cooltomin, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Ringforts
A farm track now runs straight through the middle of this ancient enclosure near Cooltomin in County Limerick, cutting across what was once a carefully bounded space.
That detail alone says a great deal about how ringforts, the circular earthwork enclosures built across Ireland from roughly the early medieval period onward, have been absorbed into the working landscape over centuries, their original significance gradually forgotten or set aside in favour of practicality.
The site sits atop a low limestone rise in rough pasture, a modest but deliberate position. It is roughly circular, measuring 34 metres north to south and 33 metres east to west, and is defined by a scarped edge, meaning a slope or cut in the ground that originally formed the boundary of the enclosure, standing around 0.7 metres high and 5.2 metres wide. This feature is best preserved along the northern to southern arc. Traces of stone footing running along the top of that scarped edge, from the south-southwest to the north, indicate that a bank or wall once followed the same line and has since been removed. The interior slopes gently down toward the southeast and is currently under rough grazing. The older avenue serving a farmhouse located about 40 metres to the north once skirted respectfully around the eastern side of the enclosure. At some point, a realigned avenue, only 2.2 metres wide, was pushed through the enclosure's centre instead. The survey was compiled by Denis Power and uploaded in August 2011.
The site sits in working farmland, which shapes what a visitor encounters. A farm shed sits immediately to the northeast of the enclosure, and a north-south aligned bank of debris from demolished farm buildings lies immediately to the west, so the archaeology and the agricultural present are closely interleaved. The northern to southern section of the scarped edge is where the form of the ringfort is most legible, and the stone footings along the top of that edge are worth looking for carefully. Access to sites like this in private farmland generally requires the landowner's permission, and the terrain underfoot is rough pasture rather than managed ground.