Ringfort (Rath), Carrig More, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Ringforts
Somebody took considerable care engineering this field.
On a south-facing slope in Carrig More, County Limerick, a roughly circular earthwork sits in open pasture, its interior deliberately raised on the downhill side to create a level platform. That kind of compensatory earthmoving, modest in scale but precise in intent, is characteristic of the ringfort tradition, and it suggests that whoever built this place was as interested in practical comfort as in defence or status.
Ringforts, known in Irish as raths, are among the most common archaeological monument types in Ireland, typically dating from the early medieval period, roughly 500 to 1000 AD, and thought to represent the enclosed farmsteads of prosperous farming families. The Carrig More example was recorded on the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map of 1897, already reduced to an earthwork by that point, and was formally surveyed by the Archaeological Survey of Ireland in 1999. That survey found a raised circular area measuring 26 metres north to south and 23 metres east to west, enclosed by an earthen bank some 4.3 metres wide. The bank survives in different forms around the circuit: to the west, north, and east it presents as a low raised bank, while from the south-east around to the west it has eroded or been cut to a scarp, a near-vertical face roughly 0.85 metres high. An entrance 2.5 metres wide, approached by a ramp through the eastern bank, is considered original. The site sits 185 metres east of the townland boundary with Carrig Beg.
The monument is in agricultural use and sits within private pasture, so access depends on landowner permission. Aerial and satellite imagery, including orthophotos from the OSi and a Google Earth image from November 2018, show the earthwork partially lined with trees along its circuit, which makes it easier to spot from a distance than the modest bank heights might suggest. The southern aspect of the slope means the site catches good light through much of the day, and the views from the interior towards the south, south-east, and south-west are notably open, a quality that would have suited early medieval occupants as much as it does anyone reading the landscape today.