Fort, Newcastle, Co. Longford

Co. Longford |

Ringforts

Fort, Newcastle, Co. Longford

In a conifer plantation near Newcastle in County Longford, a circular earthwork sits so thoroughly swallowed by scrub that even close inspection is described as impossible.

That description is itself telling. This is a place that has managed, through overgrowth and obscurity, to become almost entirely inaccessible to the eye, despite being mapped, recorded, and known about for well over a century and a half.

The Ordnance Survey's six-inch map of 1837 marked the site plainly, labelling it simply as 'Fort', a circular enclosure noted in the landscape at a time when such features were still relatively legible in the countryside. A rath, to use the more precise term, is an early medieval ringfort, typically a farmstead enclosed by one or more earthen banks and ditches, and they survive in their thousands across Ireland. This one, measured at roughly 37 metres in diameter during a site report in 1975, retains a wide, low bank of earth and stone along with a wide, shallow external fosse, the term for the ditch that would originally have run around the outside of the enclosure. What the 1975 inspection could not determine was where the original entrance had been. By that point the vegetation had already made the site difficult to read, and the surrounding conifer plantation, which tends to suppress rather than reveal, has done nothing to improve matters since.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Fort, Newcastle, Co. Longford. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement