Ringfort (Rath), Curraghkilbran, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Ringforts
A raised oval platform sitting quietly in a field of pasture, roughly 31 metres at its longest axis, is not the sort of thing that announces itself.
This ringfort in the townland of Curraghkilbran, County Limerick, is the kind of site that most people walk past without a second thought, yet it represents a form of settlement that was once remarkably common across the Irish countryside. A ringfort, sometimes called a rath, is an enclosed farmstead of the early medieval period, typically defined by one or more circular earthen banks and ditches, built to protect a family and their livestock. This one retains traces of an outer fosse, a defensive ditch, running around its southern, western, and north-western edges, giving it a modest but legible outline even after more than a thousand years.
The site sits in pasture about 700 metres west of the River Aherlow, which forms the townland boundary with Lyre to the east, with the boundary shared with Ballyfauskeen running along its southern and western edges. It was recorded as a raised oval-shaped area on the Ordnance Survey Ireland six-inch map of 1840, and again on the 25-inch edition of 1897, which gave approximate dimensions of roughly 31 metres on the northeast-southwest axis and 28 metres north to south, with the defining scarp and fosse traces clearly noted. Its formal identification as a ringfort came much later, when it was catalogued as Site 3/6 during examination of aerial photographs taken by Bord Gáis Éireann on 3 November 1984. A related earthwork, recorded separately under reference LI049-202, lies approximately 205 metres to the northeast, suggesting this was not an isolated feature in the early medieval landscape. The record was compiled by Martin Fitzpatrick and uploaded to the national database in November 2021.
The monument is largely scrub-covered now, its outline best appreciated through aerial imagery, including Digital Globe orthoimages taken between 2011 and 2013 and more recent Google Earth views, rather than from ground level. On foot, the scarp and remnants of the fosse are the most tangible indicators of what lies beneath the vegetation. The site is in agricultural land, so access would require landowner permission. Those visiting the general area should note the nearby earthwork to the northeast, which adds broader context to what was evidently a settled and organised stretch of land along the Aherlow valley in the early medieval period.