Ringfort (Rath), Cashel More, Co. Cork

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Cashel More, Co. Cork

What gives this site in Cashel More its quiet interest is not one enclosure but two, one sitting inside the other like concentric rings on a map.

Set on a north-facing slope just below a hilltop in County Cork, and now lying in open pasture, the outer bank measures a consistent 42 metres across both north-to-south and east-to-west, suggesting a carefully planned, near-perfect circle. It still stands to a height of 1.3 metres in places, with stone facing visible in sections where the earthen construction has been reinforced or perhaps partially rebuilt.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths when built primarily from earth and bank rather than stone, were the most common form of enclosed settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically serving as farmsteads for a single family or small community. What distinguishes this example is the inner ring, a low concentric rise of around half a metre, positioned 10 metres inside the outer bank and enclosing an area of roughly 20 metres in diameter. Double-enclosure ringforts are less common than single ones and are sometimes associated with higher-status occupants, though no such conclusion can be drawn here without further investigation. Within this inner enclosure, a small circular feature to the north-east, just 2.4 metres across, has been identified as a possible hut site, the kind of slight, rounded depression or platform that can mark where a timber or wattle structure once stood. A separate depression to the south-west of the enclosure may point to quarrying activity, either contemporary with the fort's use or later.

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