House - early medieval, Longford Demesne, Co. Sligo

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House – early medieval, Longford Demesne, Co. Sligo

Within a rath on the Longford Demesne in County Sligo, a faint outline in the ground marks what was once an early medieval dwelling.

A rath, to give the term its context, is a roughly circular earthen enclosure used throughout early medieval Ireland as a farmstead, typically surrounded by one or more banks and ditches. Inside this particular example, set on a slight natural rise in the south-eastern portion of the interior, the footprint of a house survives as lines of small, low stones arranged into a subrectangular or trapezoidal shape.

The structure measures 11.1 metres east to west, narrowing from 5.8 metres at the western end to 3.4 metres at the east, giving it a slightly wedge-shaped plan. That tapering outline, delimited by nothing more dramatic than modest stone lines, is all that remains above ground of what would have been a roofed domestic space. The positioning within the rath is telling: placing a house on a raised area within the enclosure would have helped with drainage and perhaps with visibility, and situating it toward the south-eastern interior is a pattern recognised at other Irish rath sites, where the northern and western portions were often given over to animal sheltering or storage. The stones themselves are low and unimposing, the kind of remains that reward careful attention rather than announce themselves to a passing eye.

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