Fort, Screeboge, Co. Longford
Co. Longford |
Ringforts
In a gently rolling field in County Longford, a subtle rise in the ground holds the outline of something much older than the pasture surrounding it.
The shape is unmistakably deliberate: a D-form, with one straight edge running along the south-east for roughly 28 metres and the rest curving away from it, the whole thing lifted just slightly above the surrounding land by a low scarp, no more than 20 to 30 centimetres high. It is easy to walk past and easier still to mistake for a natural irregularity in the terrain.
This is a ringfort, or at least what survives of one. Ringforts, which are enclosed farmsteads typically dating from the early medieval period, are among the most common archaeological monuments in Ireland, with tens of thousands recorded across the country. Most are circular; the D-shaped variant, with its flattened side, is less typical, and the reasons for the deviation from the norm are rarely obvious. At Screeboge, the straight south-eastern edge may reflect a deliberate design choice, a response to the local topography, or simply the effects of centuries of agricultural use reshaping what was once a more regular enclosure. The original entrance has been lost entirely, leaving no clue as to how people once moved in and out of this small defended space.