Ringfort (Rath), Carrownacloghy, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Ringforts
On a low hillock in Carrownacloghy, County Clare, an almost perfectly circular patch of grass marks the outline of an early medieval ringfort, the kind of enclosed farmstead that once dotted the Irish countryside in its thousands.
What makes this one quietly interesting is its double-bank construction. Most ringforts, or raths, consisted of a single earthen bank and ditch enclosing a domestic space; this one has two concentric banks separated by a narrow level strip of ground called a berm, a feature that suggests either heightened concern for defence or, more likely, a degree of social status on the part of whoever occupied it.
The interior measures roughly 33 metres across, defined by an overgrown earthen bank that stands between 0.4 and 1.1 metres high on the inside and up to 1.5 metres on the outer face. Beyond a berm approximately 1.7 metres wide sits a second, lower outer bank, though much of this has been absorbed into a field boundary on the western and north-western side, a common fate for prehistoric and early historic earthworks as later agricultural activity slowly consumes their fabric. No entrance is visible at the surface, and a field bank runs along the southern and western perimeter, further obscuring the original form of the monument. The site was catalogued as a simple enclosure in the early 1990s before being reclassified more precisely as a ringfort.