Ringfort (Rath), Corradarren, Co. Cavan
Co. Cavan |
Ringforts
At Corradarren in County Cavan, a broad circular platform rises from the surrounding land, ringed by not one but two substantial earthen banks with a wide, deep fosse, or ditch, running between them.
This double-banked arrangement places it among the more elaborate examples of its type. Most ringforts, the enclosed farmsteads that were the dominant form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, make do with a single bank and ditch. The extra circuit of earthwork here suggests either a household of some status, a need for greater security, or both.
The fort measures roughly 42 metres across its interior, spacious enough to have housed a family, their livestock, and the working structures of a small agricultural holding. The original entrance can still be identified on the eastern side, where a break in the inner bank aligns with a causeway crossing the fosse. That eastern orientation is common among Irish ringforts and may reflect practical concerns around morning light and prevailing winds, though it likely carried symbolic weight as well. One detail that stands out is the absence of the outer bank on the east-south-east arc, which may be the result of later disturbance or simply of the bank never having been completed on that side.