Ringfort (Rath), Clifden, Co. Clare

Co. Clare |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Clifden, Co. Clare

A low earthen bank curving across a hillside pasture in County Clare is easy to walk past without a second glance, yet it outlines a farmstead that was already old when the first Ordnance Survey cartographers mapped it in 1840.

The site near Clifden appears on both the 1840 and 1916 editions of the six-inch Ordnance Survey maps, a span of decades during which the surrounding landscape was reorganised beyond recognition, while the ring itself quietly persisted.

The structure is a rath, the most common type of early medieval ringfort in Ireland, typically formed by enclosing a roughly circular area with one or more earthen banks and ditches to create a defended farmstead. This example is subcircular, measuring around 24 metres east to west internally, and sits on a south-south-east-facing slope of a ridge, with marshy ground further down the hill. The bank is steep-sided and round-topped, standing about 1.6 metres on the outer face, and survives well across the western and northern arc. Around its outer edge, a faint shallow depression may be the remnant of a fosse, the ditch that would originally have reinforced the bank's defensive effect. A gap roughly two metres wide at the north-north-west is likely the original entrance. The eastern section of the bank is noticeably lower, and the probable explanation is a practical one: material appears to have been robbed from it to build an adjacent field boundary constructed under the Land Commission, the body responsible for redistributing agricultural land in Ireland during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. That newer boundary, running north-north-west to south-south-east, cuts directly across the rath's footprint, and the townland boundary itself overlies the southern arc, meaning administrative lines drawn centuries apart have quietly carved up a monument that predates them both by more than a millennium.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Ringfort (Rath), Clifden, Co. Clare. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement