Ringfort (Rath), Broomfields, Co. Wicklow

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Broomfields, Co. Wicklow

On a slope in Broomfields, County Wicklow, a roughly circular earthwork sits quietly in the landscape, its origins separated from the present by more than a thousand years.

It is a rath, or ringfort, the kind of enclosed farmstead that was once the most common settlement type across early medieval Ireland, built by farming families who surrounded their homes with earthen banks to define their territory and provide a degree of protection for livestock and household alike. Tens of thousands once existed across the island; many have been ploughed away or built over, which lends even modest survivors like this one a certain quiet significance.

This particular example measures twenty metres in diameter, defined by an earth and stone bank that is five and a half metres wide and between one and a half and one point eight metres high, dimensions that suggest a reasonably well-constructed enclosure rather than a hasty boundary. On the western, upslope side, there are faint traces of an external fosse, a shallow ditch that would originally have reinforced the bank by providing material for its construction and adding an extra obstacle on the most exposed approach. The fosse here survives to only about thirty centimetres in depth and two metres in width, much reduced by centuries of weathering and agriculture. The original entrance, one and a half metres wide, faces east, a common orientation in Irish ringforts and one that may reflect a preference for morning light, prevailing wind conditions, or simply the lay of the land. A second gap to the south is more recent in origin. No internal features have been identified within the enclosure itself.

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