Fort, Screeboge, Co. Longford
Co. Longford |
Ringforts
In a pasture field at Screeboge in County Longford, a low circular platform sits quietly on a south-east-facing slope, its outline only partially legible to anyone who does not know what to look for.
The raised area measures roughly 32 metres across and represents what was once a ringfort, the type of enclosed farmstead that was built across Ireland in great numbers during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands of these earthworks survive in varying states across the Irish landscape, but many, like this one, have been gradually absorbed into the working countryside until they are more felt than seen.
What survives at Screeboge is a scarp and bank, still standing to around 0.35 metres in height, running along the north-west to north-east arc of the monument. The rest of the enclosing element has been modified over time and folded into an existing field boundary, which is a common fate for earthworks that happen to lie along a convenient line for later landholders. A field drain roughly 1.5 metres deep now encircles the site, and it was very likely cut along the course of an earlier fosse, the external ditch that would originally have reinforced the enclosure's defences. The reuse of that original depression for agricultural drainage is a telling detail, suggesting that the practical shape of the ancient boundary was still visible and useful to later farmers even after its original purpose had long been forgotten. No trace of the original entrance survives in a recognisable form.