Ringfort (Rath), Carnybrogan, Co. Westmeath

Co. Westmeath |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Carnybrogan, Co. Westmeath

On a natural rise above the rolling grassland of Carnybrogan in County Westmeath, a circular earthwork sits quietly in the landscape, most of it now absorbed into the ordinary business of farming.

This is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, a type of enclosed settlement built predominantly during the early medieval period and once among the most common man-made features in the Irish countryside. Thousands survive in varying states of preservation, and this one is a fairly candid example of what time and agriculture tend to do to them.

The site measures approximately 32 metres east to west and takes the form of a raised circular area enclosed by two earthen banks, with a fosse, or ditch, running between them and a further fosse on the outer edge. Double-banked ringforts of this kind are sometimes taken to indicate higher status than the simpler single-bank variety, though the banks here are poorly preserved. A field fence cuts straight through the interior on a northeast to southwest alignment, dividing the enclosure in two, and the southeast quadrant holds a wide shallow depression whose original purpose is not recorded. A further series of banks and scarps around the outer edge appears to relate to field boundary construction carried out after 1700, meaning later agricultural activity has left its own marks on top of the earlier ones, complicating any reading of the monument's original form.

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Pete F
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