Ringfort (Rath), Bawnfune, Co. Cork

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Bawnfune, Co. Cork

A low rise in a pasture field in Bawnfune, Co. Cork conceals something that repays a closer look: a well-preserved ringfort, or rath, sitting atop a natural hillock with its enclosing earthen bank still standing nearly three metres high.

Thousands of ringforts survive across Ireland, the remains of enclosed farmsteads built primarily during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Most have been reduced to faint cropmarks or ploughed-out traces. This one retains a presence.

The fort is roughly circular, measuring just under 24 metres across in both directions, and its bank carries an unusual detail: along the arc from south-west to north-west, the inner face of the earthen rampart is reinforced with stone, suggesting either a more ambitious original construction or later repair using whatever material was to hand on the hillside. Outside the bank, a fosse, the encircling ditch that would originally have made the whole structure considerably more formidable, is still traceable, though it has largely silted and filled in over the centuries to a width of around 1.6 metres. A break of the same width in the north-east section of the bank marks where the original entrance once stood, a gap just wide enough for a person, livestock, or a cart to pass through, and oriented, as many ringfort entrances are, towards the east.

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Pete F
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