Ringfort (Rath), Graigues (Connello Lower By.), Co. Limerick

Co. Limerick |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Graigues (Connello Lower By.), Co. Limerick

Somewhere in the low hills of Connello Lower, in County Limerick, a ringfort has effectively ceased to exist in any practical sense, swallowed whole by the scrub that has grown over and around it until nothing of the structure is visible from the surface.

It is, by the record, still there, but the landscape has quietly reclaimed it.

A ringfort, or rath, is one of Ireland's most common early medieval monument types: a roughly circular enclosure defined by an earthen bank and ditch, used as a farmstead and home for a family of some local standing, typically dating from around the fifth to the twelfth century. The example at Graigues was recorded on the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1923 as a circular enclosure with a diameter of approximately twenty metres, set on a west-facing hill-slope. That map entry is now effectively the monument's primary existence. When Denis Power compiled the site record, uploaded in August 2011, the rath was already completely obscured by dense scrub overgrowth, the surrounding area having long since been taken over by the kind of thorny, tangled secondary growth that makes fieldwork uncomfortable and observation nearly impossible.

For anyone curious enough to seek it out, the site sits on a west-facing slope in the Graigues area of Connello Lower barony, though locating the precise spot is a matter of working from the 1923 OS map rather than any visible feature on the ground. There is no earthwork to observe, no bank to walk around, no hollow to suggest the interior. The scrub cover that obscures it is described as dense, so any visit would require some tolerance for rough terrain. The monument is more useful as a reminder of how much of Ireland's early medieval landscape persists in records and maps rather than in anything you can stand beside and touch, and of how quickly vegetation can render even a listed site genuinely invisible.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Ringfort (Rath), Graigues (Connello Lower By.), Co. Limerick. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement