Ringfort (Rath), Ballyvoghan, Co. Wicklow

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Ballyvoghan, Co. Wicklow

What survives at Ballyvoghan today is a noticeably smaller monument than what was once here.

A circular raised platform, roughly 43 metres in diameter and about a metre high, sits on a south-west-facing slope in County Wicklow, defined by an earth and stone bank and an outer fosse, the shallow ditch that typically surrounds a rath. A rath is an Irish ringfort, a type of enclosed farmstead built in their thousands across Ireland during the early medieval period, generally between the fifth and twelfth centuries. The fosse here is still faintly legible on the western side, though the northern portion of the enclosure has been cut into by an adjacent farmyard, erasing whatever once lay there.

The really striking detail is what the 1838 Ordnance Survey six-inch map records. At that point, the enclosure was mapped as a much larger oval feature, with a maximum diameter of around 90 metres along a north-west to south-east axis. Today's surviving platform, at 43 metres across, represents barely half that original extent. The comparison suggests that nearly two centuries of agricultural activity, including the encroachment of the farmyard, have substantially reduced or obscured the monument. No trace of an entrance or any internal features has been identified in the portion that remains, which means the site gives little away about how it was once used or organised.

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Pete F
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