Ringfort (Rath), Keeloges (Coshlea By.), Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Ringforts
A small cluster of trees sitting alone in a Limerick pasture is often the first sign that something older lies beneath the grass.
This ringfort in the townland of Keeloges, in the barony of Coshlea, is one of those quiet survivals that rewards a second glance. Ringforts, known in Irish as raths, were typically enclosed farmsteads of the early medieval period, their circular banks and ditches defining a domestic space for a family and their livestock. This one sits roughly 55 metres east of the townland boundary with Ardrahin, and it is not alone: two related enclosures lie within 65 metres to the south-west and north-west respectively, suggesting this was once a more complex and perhaps interconnected settlement landscape.
The monument's recorded history offers a clear picture of gradual change over centuries. The first edition Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1840 shows it as a circular bank-enclosed area, though already clipped on its western side by a field boundary that was established sometime after 1700. By the time the 25-inch edition was surveyed in 1897, the record describes a raised oval form, approximately 22 metres in diameter, defined by a scarp, a fosse (a defensive or enclosing ditch), and an outer bank running from the south-west around through the west and north to the north-east. The eastern and southern arc had by then been absorbed into that same post-1700 field boundary, leaving the ancient earthwork only partially legible as a freestanding form. A possible entrance gap survives at the south-west, which is a common orientation for ringfort entrances. The record was compiled by Fiona Rooney and uploaded in November 2021.
On aerial and satellite imagery from between 2011 and 2013, the site appears as a tree-covered rise, the vegetation having taken hold where the earthwork has been left undisturbed by ploughing. Visiting on the ground requires navigating working farmland, so permission from the landowner would be the sensible first step. The overlapping field boundary makes the western portion of the monument difficult to read at close quarters, but approaching from the south-west gives the clearest sense of the surviving scarp and the probable entrance gap. The companion enclosures nearby, though not visible from a single vantage point, are worth bearing in mind as evidence that this corner of County Limerick once held a denser pattern of early settlement than the present quiet pasture suggests.
