Ringfort (Rath), Ballyshanedehey, Co. Limerick

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Ballyshanedehey, Co. Limerick

A low earthen ring sitting quietly in a Limerick pasture, this rath at Ballyshanedehey is one of those places that rewards a second look.

At roughly 28 metres north to south and 31 metres east to west, the enclosure is not especially large, but what catches the attention is the number of ways in and out of it. Four separate openings break the circuit of its bank, including three ramped entrances wide enough to suggest deliberate, repeated use rather than casual gaps worn by time. A rath, for those unfamiliar with the term, is a type of ringfort, typically an enclosed farmstead of the early medieval period in Ireland, defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches. Tens of thousands survive across the country in varying states of preservation, but few are examined closely enough for their individual character to become apparent.

The site has been documented across more than a century and a half of cartographic record. The Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1840 shows it as a raised circular area defined by a scarp, and by the time of the 1897 twenty-five-inch edition, a fosse, meaning an enclosing ditch, had been recorded alongside the bank. A survey carried out in 1999 captured the earthwork in more precise terms: a sub-circular bank with an overall width of 3.8 metres, rising to just under a metre in external height, though reduced at the south-west to a scarp roughly 0.85 metres high. The interior slopes gently toward the south-south-east and was found to be dry and clear of overgrowth at the time of survey. The record was compiled by Fiona Rooney and uploaded to the national inventory in November 2021, drawing also on aerial photography and Google Earth imagery taken between 2011 and 2013.

The monument sits in pasture on a very slight south-south-east-facing slope, with moderate views opening out to the south-west and west. Because it lies in working farmland, any visit would require permission from the landowner. The enclosure is most legible from the north through to the south-east, where the bank and the trace of the fosse read clearly against the surrounding ground. The four openings in the bank are worth examining individually: the widest, at the east, measures two metres across, while a narrow cattle break at the east-south-east, at just 0.6 metres, hints at the site's long secondary life as part of an ordinary agricultural landscape.

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