Ringfort, Boystown, Co. Wicklow

Co. Wicklow |

Ringforts

Ringfort, Boystown, Co. Wicklow

A circular enclosure on a quiet south-westerly slope in County Wicklow, this ringfort is the kind of place that rewards a second look.

At thirty metres across, it is not especially large, but its low bank of earth and stone, still standing between 0.7 and 1.1 metres high and roughly 1.5 metres wide, traces a remarkably complete circuit around a space that was once someone's home or farmstead. Two gaps interrupt the ring, one to the north at just over 1.6 metres wide, and a slightly wider one to the south-east at 2.24 metres, most likely original entrances rather than later breaks. What makes it quietly interesting is what is absent: there is no fosse, the encircling ditch that typically accompanies such earthworks, and no visible trace of internal features.

Ringforts are the most common field monument type in Ireland, with tens of thousands recorded across the island. They date broadly from the early medieval period, roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries, and functioned primarily as enclosed farmsteads for single family groups. The bank, sometimes reinforced with stone revetment as here, defined a boundary that was part practical boundary marker and part social statement. At Boystown, the bank retains a discontinuous inner and outer facing of low boulders, a detail that speaks to the care originally taken in its construction even if centuries of weathering have left it modest in profile. The absence of a fosse sets it apart from many comparable sites, suggesting either a simpler construction phase or that any ditch has been levelled over time.

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Pete F
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