Fort, Tullynamalra, Co. Monaghan
Co. Monaghan |
Ringforts
On the crest of a drumlin in Tullynamalra, a low earthwork sits in a shape that does not quite follow the rules.
Most ringforts, the enclosed farmsteads that dot the Irish countryside in their thousands, describe a rough circle. This one is D-shaped, its flat side cutting across what would otherwise be a complete curve, and nobody has yet identified where its original entrance once stood.
The fort is modest in scale, roughly 35 metres from northwest to southeast and 30 metres across, but its construction is more layered than a casual glance suggests. A slight inner bank is separated from a second, slightly more substantial outer bank by a flat strip of ground known as a berm, and beyond that outer bank a second berm gives way to a scarp dropping about two metres. In plan, these concentric arcs of bank, berm, and scarp survive across the western, northern, and eastern sides, giving the impression of a carefully considered defensive arrangement. The southern portion has fared less well: two later field banks, running in different directions, cut across the interior, breaking up the original geometry and making it harder to read the site as a whole. Whether the D-shape reflects the original design or is partly an accident of this later disturbance is not resolved. Drumlin tops were favoured locations for such enclosures across Ulster, offering natural elevation and good visibility over the surrounding glacial landscape without requiring the construction of a full mound.
The earthworks are grass and scrub-covered today, which softens their outlines but also preserves them from more serious erosion. The double-bank arrangement, relatively uncommon among simpler ringforts, hints at a site that may have held some local importance, though without excavation the dating and function remain open questions.