Ringfort (Rath), Joanstown, Co. Westmeath

Co. Westmeath |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Joanstown, Co. Westmeath

What makes this ringfort at Joanstown quietly unusual is not any single dramatic feature but the way several distinct enclosures nest within and beside one another on a low ridge in County Westmeath, hemmed in by bog to one side and the River Inny not far to the other.

Ringforts, also known as raths, were the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically consisting of a circular or oval area bounded by an earthen bank and a fosse, which is a rock-cut or earthen ditch. Most are relatively straightforward in their layout. This one is not.

The main enclosure is oval, measuring roughly 28 metres across in one direction and 36 in the other, and it retains a deep wide fosse along with a substantial outer bank, though both have been levelled along the north-east to east arc, and modern gaps have opened at the south-east and south-west. Inside, the ground tilts gently from south-west to north-east, and in the south-west sector there is a raised sub-rectangular platform of its own, enclosed by a separate fosse. This kind of internal platform is sometimes interpreted as the base for a structure of some significance within the settlement. Beyond the main enclosure, on its north-east side, a sizeable annexe extends outward, also sub-rectangular in plan and approximately 37 metres across. Annexes attached to ringforts are not unheard of, but they suggest a more complex use of space than the simple farmstead model often applied to these sites. Within the annexe, in its south-east corner, a rectilinear platform surrounded by a slight fosse may represent the remains of a hut site, though this is uncertain. The whole monument sits at the north-east end of a low ridge running north-west to south-east, with partially reclaimed wet grassland spreading out around it and bog beginning just 70 metres to the north-west.

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