Ringfort (Rath), Brackloon, Co. Mayo
Co. Mayo |
Ringforts
On a ridge in Brackloon, County Mayo, a near-perfect circle of hawthorn and blackthorn marks the outline of an early medieval ringfort, its earthen bank still legible in the pasture after more than a thousand years.
What makes this rath quietly compelling is not what can be seen on the surface, but what local tradition says lies beneath it: a souterrain, an underground passage or chamber of the kind often constructed beneath ringforts during the early medieval period, used variously for storage, refuge, or keeping dairy produce cool. The interior of the enclosure is level and gives nothing away.
The ringfort measures 29 metres across in both directions, making it a reasonably substantial example of its type. A rath is essentially a circular enclosure defined by an earthen bank and ditch, used as a farmstead during the early medieval period, roughly 500 to 1000 AD, and thousands survive across Ireland in varying states of preservation. Here, the bank reaches an external height of around 1.8 metres on the southern side, where the slope breaks away and the ground drops, making the structure more pronounced from that aspect. The inner face of the bank at the south-west retains protruding stones that may be the remains of a stone kerb or facing, suggesting the builders put more effort into that section than the relatively low northern arc would now imply. The original entrance was most likely on the eastern side, where a gap of about 1.5 metres interrupts the bank, though it is now blocked with field clearance debris. A second, narrower gap to the north-north-east appears to be a later breach, widened gradually by farm animals rather than by any deliberate design.
The ring of hawthorn and blackthorn that encircles the bank is worth noting in itself. Such trees were traditionally associated with raths across Ireland, sometimes planted deliberately, sometimes self-seeded over centuries, and widely regarded in folk belief as carrying a protective significance that discouraged disturbance of the monument beneath them.