Ringfort (Rath), Corimla, Co. Mayo

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Corimla, Co. Mayo

Sitting on a gentle rise between two rivers in County Mayo, this earthwork enclosure raises more questions than it answers.

The Brusna River lies roughly 200 metres to the northwest and the Glenree River some 370 metres to the southeast, which means whoever chose this spot was thinking about water, boundaries, or both. A modern field fence cuts straight across the northwestern edge of the bank, and a hawthorn and gorse perimeter now rings the whole circuit, lending the place a sense of having quietly grown around its own age.

The enclosure takes an ovoid shape, measuring about 29.5 metres on its longest axis and 22 metres across, narrowing towards the northwest. This is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, a class of monument that was built and occupied predominantly during the early medieval period, roughly the fifth to twelfth centuries, and typically served as a defended farmstead for a single family or small community. The earthen bank here survives to an external height of up to 1.7 metres on the southwestern side, though it has worn considerably lower in places and shows several eroded gaps. The largest of these gaps, 1.5 metres wide on the southeastern side, may represent the original entrance, though the eastern side is also a candidate, where a low section of bank corresponds with a noticeable slope in the interior floor. Most intriguing is a shallow linear depression near the highest point of the interior, measuring roughly 4 metres long and 1.4 metres wide, with a faint raised lip along its western edge. This may indicate the presence of a souterrain, an underground passage or chamber often associated with early medieval settlements and thought to have served for storage or refuge. A further sub-circular feature against the inner face of the bank to the south-southwest is barely visible and its purpose remains unclear.

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Pete F
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