Ringfort (Rath), Forekill, Co. Kilkenny

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Forekill, Co. Kilkenny

Most Irish ringforts are circular, so the roughly D-shaped outline of this one in Forekill, County Kilkenny, is quietly worth noting.

Sitting on a broad, flat-topped ridge in open grassland, the enclosure measures approximately 26 metres north to south and 31 metres east to west, its eastern sector running in an unusually straight line where a true ring would curve. That slight geometric oddity, combined with the commanding position on the ridge, gives the site a particular character among the hundreds of similar earthworks scattered across the Irish countryside.

A ringfort, or rath, is an enclosed homestead of early medieval Ireland, typically dating from roughly the sixth to the twelfth century, defended by one or more circular earthen banks and a surrounding ditch known as a fosse. Here the bank is low and wide rather than steep and dramatic, rising about 1.2 metres above the interior and 2 metres above the exterior ground level, with an overall width of around 5 metres. The fosse, which runs to roughly 3 metres wide and 1.2 metres deep, is best preserved along the northern, southern, and western sides. A very slight outer bank is also visible, though this is likely a later field boundary rather than an original defensive feature. The most clearly original element of the design is the entrance on the western side, where a causeway some 2.5 metres wide crosses the fosse, leaving a deliberate gap in the enclosing earthworks, the point through which the inhabitants of this long-vanished farmstead would have passed daily.

The ridge setting means the enclosure is visible against the sky from some distance, and the views from inside the rath reach in all directions across the surrounding farmland, much as they would have done for whoever lived here more than a thousand years ago.

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Pete F
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