Ringfort (Rath), Ballydaheen, Co. Cork

Co. Cork |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Ballydaheen, Co. Cork

Between the first Ordnance Survey maps of the 1840s and the present day, the farmers of Ballydaheen quietly folded an ancient boundary into their own.

The earthen bank of this ringfort, a roughly circular enclosure that would once have defined a single farmstead in early medieval Ireland, has been absorbed into the modern field fence system running east to south-southwest. The result is that the monument survives not as a preserved relic set apart from working land, but as a seamless part of it, still doing a version of the job it was built for.

A ringfort, or rath, is essentially an enclosed homestead, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century, defined by one or more earthen banks and used to protect a family and their livestock. This example in Ballydaheen sits in level pasture and measures approximately 48 metres east to west and 42 metres north to south, making it a fairly modest specimen. Its bank is low, standing around 0.4 metres on the interior and 0.5 metres on the exterior, with a drainage ditch 1.2 metres deep running along the outside. The 1842 six-inch Ordnance Survey map recorded it as a hachured circular enclosure with a diameter of around 40 metres. By the 1935 revision, it appeared as a raised circular area, already showing the field boundary cutting across it. The interior is grass-covered and slopes gently down toward the south-southeast.

What makes this particular site quietly interesting is the long, undramatic process by which it has survived. It was not protected by fencing it off or marking it out; it persisted because it was useful. The bank became a fence line. The enclosure became a field corner. The archaeology did not disappear so much as it was quietly recruited into later land use, leaving a slightly raised, vaguely circular irregularity in the pasture that most people walking past would read simply as an old hedge boundary.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Ringfort (Rath), Ballydaheen, Co. Cork. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement