Ringfort (Rath), Kilcommon More, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Kilcommon More, Co. Tipperary

What sets this particular rath apart from the thousands of similar earthworks scattered across the Irish countryside is that it does not stand alone.

It sits conjoined with a neighbouring ringfort, the two enclosures sharing their landscape in an arrangement that was not unusual in early medieval Ireland but is uncommon enough today to draw the eye on any survey map. The site lies on relatively flat ground in Kilcommon More, County Tipperary, the terrain rolling gently around it without any dramatic natural feature to explain why someone chose this spot to build.

A ringfort, or rath, is a roughly circular enclosure formed by one or more earthen banks, used in early medieval Ireland primarily as a farmstead and home for a single family and their livestock. This example is approximately forty metres across in both directions, making it a fairly typical specimen in terms of scale. Its enclosing bank is still measurable, with a crest width of around two metres and a base spread of nearly five, rising about 1.86 metres on the exterior face and 1.23 metres on the interior side. A well-defined entrance gap of around 2.5 metres opens in the north-east quadrant, the favoured orientation for ringfort entrances across much of the country, possibly for practical reasons of shelter and light. Mature elm trees have been planted along the bank at some point since the structure was in active use, their root systems now woven into the earthwork itself, and the interior has become heavily overgrown with vegetation, obscuring whatever ground-level detail might otherwise be legible beneath the pasture.

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