Ringfort (Rath), Carpenterstown, Co. Westmeath

Co. Westmeath |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Carpenterstown, Co. Westmeath

On an east-facing slope in County Westmeath, a large oval enclosure sits quietly in grassland, its double banks and intervening ditch still legible in the landscape despite centuries of wear and at least some deliberate quarrying.

This is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, the most common type of early medieval monument in Ireland. Ringforts were typically enclosed farmsteads, home to a single family and their animals, built and occupied roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Most were defined by a single earthen bank and ditch, so the presence of two concentric banks here, enclosing an area of approximately forty metres across its northeast to southwest axis, suggests this particular example may have belonged to someone of above-average local standing.

The site sits on rising ground with open views across the northern, eastern, and southern approaches, a placement that was typical and deliberate: early farmers chose positions that allowed them to see who was coming. To the west, higher ground closes off the prospect. Lough Glore lies about 370 metres to the south-southwest, and a separate earthwork monument sits only 110 metres to the east, suggesting this was once a well-populated agricultural landscape. The inner bank is low and broad, the fosse between the two banks is shallow, and the outer bank is slight and poorly preserved. Quarrying has levelled both banks along the eastern side. An entrance gap survives at the northeast. What makes the site particularly interesting is the rectangular house site visible in aerial photography taken in November 2011, sitting at the centre of the enclosure, a faint but legible trace of the domestic life once carried on inside the earthworks.

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