Ringfort (Rath), Graigue, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Ringforts
Between the crest of a flat-topped hill and the valley below, just enough off the ridge to catch the western slope, a roughly circular earthwork sits quietly in pasture land in the shadow of Slievenamon.
It is fenced now with wooden posts and electric wire, and its interior has long since been swallowed by trees and scrub, but the underlying structure remains legible in the ground itself.
A ringfort, or rath, is one of the most common monument types in the Irish landscape, typically a circular enclosure defined by an earthen bank and an outer ditch, used as a farmstead during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. This example at Graigue follows that pattern closely. Based on measurements taken from the twenty-five-inch Ordnance Survey map, the enclosed area is roughly circular, running approximately 45 metres north to south and 49 metres east to west. The enclosing bank is about 6.6 metres wide, rising 0.75 metres above the interior and a more substantial 2.2 metres above the fosse, which is the outer ditch, itself around 4 metres wide and 0.6 metres deep. These are modest but coherent dimensions, consistent with a single-family agricultural enclosure rather than anything more elaborate. The position on a gentle westward slope, with Slievenamon rising to the north, would have offered reasonable drainage and a degree of natural shelter.