Fort, Glasmullagh, Co. Monaghan
Co. Monaghan |
Ringforts
Just below the crest of a drumlin ridge in Glasmullagh, County Monaghan, a roughly circular earthwork sits largely forgotten beneath layers of overgrowth.
Drumlins, the elongated hills of glacial till that ripple across the Ulster landscape, were frequently chosen as sites for early enclosures precisely because of the natural elevation and visibility they offered. This particular fort occupies a commanding position just north of a ridge summit, and though its banks are now heavily overgrown and its perimeter reduced in places to a bare scarp, its basic shape remains legible: roughly subcircular, measuring around 43 metres on its longer axis and 38.4 metres across, with the interior tilting gently down toward the north-east.
The enclosure is defined by an earthen bank running along the north-north-east and south-east stretches of the perimeter, while elsewhere the boundary survives only as a change in ground level. An outer drain runs around the outside, and this may represent a re-cut fosse, the term for a defensive ditch typically dug in conjunction with a raised bank, suggesting the site may once have had more substantial defences than those visible today. Tree stumps in the interior hint at relatively recent clearance, though the site has since been reclaimed by vegetation. There is also an entrance and causeway to the north, though whether this reflects the original approach or a later modification is uncertain. No date has been firmly established for the fort, and without excavation it remains difficult to assign it confidently to any particular period, though earthwork enclosures of this kind in Ireland range widely from the prehistoric through to the early medieval.