Ringfort (Rath), Curraghmore, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Ringforts
What makes this particular ringfort quietly curious is not any single dramatic feature but the company it keeps.
Up on the flat upland pasture of Curraghmore in County Tipperary, this circular enclosure sits within sight of a second ringfort to the south-west, the two of them occupying the same open ground in a pairing that raises questions about how early medieval farming communities organised themselves across a landscape.
A ringfort, sometimes called a rath, was the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically a circular area enclosed by an earthen bank and ditch, used to protect a farmstead and its livestock. This example at Curraghmore measures roughly 31.5 metres across from north to south, enclosed by a bank of earth and stone about 2.3 metres wide. The bank stands around a metre high on its outer face, dropping to about 0.4 metres on the interior, which is consistent with the kind of modest but functional enclosure a farming family might have maintained. A possible entrance gap, approximately 3.5 metres wide, appears on the south-western side, which would have offered the most direct route toward the neighbouring ringfort. That second enclosure, sitting close enough to suggest a deliberate relationship, hints at a small cluster of settlement rather than an isolated homestead, though whether the two were occupied simultaneously or represent different phases of use is not recorded.