Ringfort (Rath), Tuogh (Owneybeg By.), Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Ringforts
There are roughly 40,000 ringforts recorded across Ireland, yet each one has a way of disappearing into the landscape if you are not actively looking for it.
The example in the townland of Tuogh, in the old barony of Owneybeg in County Limerick, is a particularly modest specimen, sitting quietly in poorly drained, undulating pasture on a gentle west-facing slope, about twenty metres west of a field boundary. It does not announce itself.
A rath, to use the term found in the survey record, is a type of ringfort defined by earthen rather than stone construction. These enclosures were built predominantly during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and typically served as farmsteads for a single family or small household. The one at Tuogh is circular, with an internal diameter of twenty-three metres, enclosed by an earthen bank that rises only about twenty centimetres above the interior ground surface and roughly sixty centimetres on its outer face. Around the outside runs a fosse, which is simply a ditch, here measuring two metres wide and thirty centimetres deep. Those are modest dimensions by any measure, and the bank itself, two metres wide, is more of a low swelling in the ground than a rampart. The site was compiled by Denis Power and uploaded to the record in July 2013.
Because the earthworks are so slight, this is the kind of site that rewards patience and a low angle of light, particularly on an overcast morning or in the hour before sunset, when raking light picks out subtle rises and hollows in the turf that simply vanish under a midday sun. The poorly drained ground means the area can be wet underfoot, so sturdy footwear is advisable. The field boundary mentioned in the survey record provides a useful reference point for locating the enclosure, which sits a short distance to its west. There is nothing here to read or interpret on site; the interest lies entirely in recognising what those gentle earthen curves represent and imagining the enclosed yard, the small timber buildings, and the daily routines of whoever farmed this slope more than a thousand years ago.