Ringfort (Rath), Ballyfookoon, Co. Limerick

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Ballyfookoon, Co. Limerick

Most ringforts in Ireland occupy elevated ground, chosen by their early medieval builders for visibility and a degree of natural defence.

The one that survives in the townland of Ballyfookoon, County Limerick, does the opposite. It sits in low-lying, level, wet pasture, with poor views in every direction. Whatever purpose it served, commanding the landscape was not among its priorities.

The site appears on the 1840 edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map as a small circular fort set within a rectangular field, and by the time the 25-inch map was produced in 1897 it was recorded as an oval embanked enclosure with external dimensions of roughly 27 metres north to south and 35 metres east to west. A ringfort, sometimes called a rath, is essentially a circular or near-circular enclosed farmstead of the early medieval period, typically defined by one or more earthen banks and a ditch, known as a fosse, dug around the outside. When the Archaeological Survey of Ireland inspected this one in 2000, they described a raised ovoid-shaped area with internal dimensions of 14 metres by 22 metres, its edges defined by a scarped, or cut-away, slope and an external fosse roughly 6.6 metres wide. The southern bank had already been partially removed by a later field boundary, and the entrance on the northern side, a ramped gap around 6 metres wide, was judged to be modern rather than original. A field drain runs from a ditch at the north-east, following the eastern and southern sides of the enclosure through the fosse before draining away to the south-west, which goes some way to explaining the persistently wet ground. Another ringfort lies approximately 500 metres to the west, just across the townland boundary with Killonahan.

By the time Google Earth imagery was captured in June 2018 and again in February 2020, the interior had become heavily overgrown with scrub woodland, which makes reading the earthworks on the ground more difficult than the survey figures might suggest. The site sits on and just north of the townland boundary with Killonahan, so orientation is useful before approaching across the pasture. Waterproof footwear is a practical necessity given the consistently wet conditions underfoot. The earthworks themselves are low, the internal height recorded at just half a metre, so patience and a slow circuit of the perimeter will reveal more than a single look from any one angle.

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