Enclosure, Rusheen, Co. Mayo
Co. Mayo |
Enclosures
On the summit of a ridge at Rusheen in County Mayo, a slight curve in the ground is almost all that remains of what may once have been a ringfort.
The arc-shaped earthen bank survives to a height of only 0.2 metres, levelled across its south-western to eastern arc, and sits quietly in ordinary pasture. It is exactly the kind of feature that a grazing animal would cross without noticing, yet it potentially marks a settlement site of considerable age.
Ringforts, known variously as raths or cashels depending on whether they were built from earth or stone, were enclosed farmsteads typically dating from the early medieval period, roughly the sixth to the twelfth centuries, though some are older. They were once so numerous across the Irish landscape that tens of thousands of examples are recorded nationally. Many, like this one at Rusheen, survive only as faint impressions, their banks robbed out for field walls or simply worn down by centuries of agriculture and weather. The classification here is cautious, recorded only as a possible ringfort, which reflects the honest uncertainty that comes when so little physical evidence remains above ground.
