Ringfort (Rath), Cragmore, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Ringforts
A field in Co. Limerick holds the remains of something that was, until relatively recently, a legible piece of early Irish history.
On a slight rise in low-lying, undulating pasture near Cragmore, there sits what was once a rath, a type of ringfort consisting of an earthen bank enclosing a roughly circular area, typically used as a farmstead or defended homestead during the early medieval period. It no longer announces itself. The enclosure has been levelled into the surrounding field, and to an untrained eye the ground here looks like ordinary grazing land.
The monument appears clearly on the 1923 Ordnance Survey six-inch map, recorded there as an embanked circular enclosure with a diameter of approximately 25 metres. At some point between that survey and the present day, the structure was substantially reduced. The landowner, speaking to surveyor Denis Power, whose records were compiled in August 2011, confirmed that the levelling took place in the 1950s, a period when agricultural improvement schemes across Ireland resulted in the loss of many such earthworks. The site is not unique in this regard, but the partial survival of its bank makes it slightly more than a memory.
What remains is subtle but traceable. A low earthen bank, rising to around 0.3 metres on the interior face and 0.15 metres on the exterior, can be followed along an arc running from north-north-west to north-north-east. A further very low rise of around 0.1 metres continues that arc towards the east-south-east, giving a reconstructed diameter of roughly 27 metres from north-west to south-east. Visitors with an interest in reading landscape rather than viewing monuments will find this the kind of site that rewards patience and low-angled light, particularly in the morning or late afternoon when slight ground undulations become more visible. There are no formal access arrangements noted, so any visit would require engagement with the landowner beforehand.