Ringfort (Rath), Drumcrow, Co. Cavan
Co. Cavan |
Ringforts
In a field at Drumcrow in County Cavan, a circular platform of raised earth sits quietly in the landscape, its outline still legible despite centuries of erosion.
The interior measures roughly 37.5 metres in diameter, and what remains of the surrounding bank has been so worn down over time that the site reads less as a fortification and more as a gentle swelling in the ground. The original entrance has been lost entirely, and there is no trace of the fosse, the external ditch that would once have ringed the bank and defined the enclosure's edge.
This is a rath, the most common type of early medieval settlement monument in Ireland. Raths were typically built between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries and served as enclosed farmsteads, the earthen bank and ditch providing a degree of security for a family, their livestock, and their dwelling. At their peak they were a defining feature of the Irish countryside, and tens of thousands were constructed across the island. Many have since been ploughed out, built over, or reduced, like this one in Drumcrow, to something only just visible. The absence of a surviving fosse here is not unusual for sites that have endured heavy agricultural activity across the intervening centuries, and a badly denuded bank is often all that remains where the original structure once stood several metres high.