Ringfort (Rath), Gannavane Upper, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Ringforts
A low, unassuming earthwork tucked into a clearing amid commercial forestry in the Slievefelim foothills carries a detail that gives pause: the modest cluster of irregular slabs arranged in the western sector of the enclosure may mark the spot where unbaptised children were once quietly buried.
The practice of interring such children within or beside ancient earthworks was common across Ireland for centuries, the old ground understood to occupy a liminal space outside the jurisdiction of the Church. Whether that is what happened here remains uncertain, but the possibility is enough to reframe what might otherwise read as a routine archaeological footnote.
The monument sits in Gannavane Upper, County Limerick, on a south-westerly facing slope at the south-eastern edge of the Slievefelim Mountains. A ringfort, sometimes called a rath, is a roughly circular enclosure built during the early medieval period, typically using an earthen bank and outer ditch, and understood to have served as a defended farmstead. This example was recorded on the revised 1924 edition of the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map as a suboval enclosure abutting a small field to the north-east. When the Archaeological Survey of Ireland assessed it in 1999, surveyors described a roughly D-shaped raised area measuring approximately 26 metres east to west and 21 metres north to south. The enclosing bank has been considerably reduced over time, surviving mainly as a low scarp between 0.3 and 1.6 metres in dimension, and part of the north-eastern sector has been absorbed into a later field boundary. A single triangular upright slab protrudes from the top of the western scarp, and small rubble boulders along the scarped edge may reflect either deliberate field clearance or stone that has worked loose from the original bank fabric through livestock erosion.
Reaching the site requires navigating forestry roads in the south-east Slievefelim foothills, where the monument occupies a small unplanted green area at the angle of two such roads, now surrounded by plantation trees. The enclosure remains visible on aerial imagery, its oval outline legible from above even where ground-level detail has been worn smooth. On the ground, the western scarp rewards close attention: the upright triangular slab and the low cairn-like grouping of slabs nearby are subtle features easily overlooked on a quick pass. The interior slope faces south-west, which means afternoon light falls across it in a way that can help distinguish slight changes in ground level that photographs and maps tend to flatten out.