Ringfort (Rath), Corkagh More, Co. Sligo

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Corkagh More, Co. Sligo

In a field of reclaimed pasture in County Sligo, a low circular rise holds its shape against the agricultural landscape around it, the remnants of an early medieval ringfort that has been slowly losing ground to centuries of farming.

The rath, as this type of earthwork enclosure is known, measures roughly 25 metres in diameter and was once defined by a continuous earthen bank. That bank survives best to the north, where it still stands 1.7 metres high on the exterior face, but to the south and along the western arc it has been largely levelled, and a modern field fence now runs directly over the western edge, absorbing part of the old boundary into the working geometry of the farm.

Ringforts were the most common settlement form in early medieval Ireland, typically enclosing a family's dwelling and outbuildings within a raised bank and sometimes a surrounding ditch. At Corkagh More, a terrace running along the outside of the bank between the east-northeast and southeast offers an unusually clear sense of how the enclosure was once delineated; it follows the curve of the rath precisely and stands between one and one and a half metres high. To the north-northwest there is a fosse-like depression, though whether this is a genuine remnant of an original ditch or the result of more recent disturbance is unclear. A four-metre gap in the bank to the east is thought to mark the original entrance to the enclosure. Perhaps the most intriguing detail is a local tradition, still attached to the site, of a souterrain beneath the western half of the rath. A souterrain is an underground stone-lined passage, often associated with storage or refuge, and their presence beneath ringforts is well documented across Ireland, though at Corkagh More no excavation has confirmed the tradition one way or the other.

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