Ringfort, Kilbaylet, Co. Wicklow
Co. Wicklow |
Ringforts
Two ringforts sitting thirty metres apart is not something you stumble across every day.
In Kilbaylet, County Wicklow, a well-preserved earthwork occupies the level top of a slight northeast-to-southwest ridge, its eastern edge dropping sharply down to the marshy floor of Dolls Brook below. That proximity to a second ringfort, sitting just to the southwest, raises quiet questions about how these enclosures related to one another and to the people who built them.
Ringforts, sometimes called raths, are the most common monument type in the Irish countryside, the enclosed farmsteads of early medieval Ireland, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries. This example at Kilbaylet is a circular, steep-sided platform about twenty-one metres in diameter and standing up to 2.2 metres at its highest point, with a slight perimeter bank adding a further metre of height. There is no sign of an external fosse, the ditch that commonly accompanies such banks, and no visible trace of internal structures survives above ground. A ramp on the northeast side may mark the original entrance, which would have faced away from the boggy ground to the east and towards the more passable western slopes. The ridge position, modest but deliberate, would have offered a clear view of the surrounding land and a degree of natural drainage, both practical considerations for an early farming household.