Ringfort (Rath), Killedan, Co. Mayo

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Ringfort (Rath), Killedan, Co. Mayo

What is unusual about this ringfort at Killedan is not the fort itself but the company it keeps.

Within roughly 170 metres of this rath, three further raths sit in close proximity to the east and south-east, a clustering that hints at a landscape once organised around a concentration of enclosed farmsteads, each occupied by early medieval families whose territorial and social relationships we can now only guess at.

A rath, in broad terms, was a roughly circular enclosure defined by an earthen bank and sometimes an outer ditch, used as a defended farmstead during the early medieval period in Ireland, from roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries. This example at Killedan occupies a rise on a ridge, with a pronounced fall of ground to the south and south-west, a position that would have commanded wide views across the surrounding countryside. The roughly circular platform measures about 31 metres across on its north-north-east to south-south-west axis, and is defined by a scarp, a cut or slope in the earth, ranging from about 0.6 to 0.8 metres high, rising to 1.6 metres on the south-south-west side where the ground falls away most steeply. A slightly raised internal rim, incorporating occasional large stones, runs along the inside of this scarp. On the south-east arc, a faint depression with a hint of a rise on its outer edge may indicate the remains of a fosse, an outer ditch, and a levelled bank, suggesting the enclosure was once more substantially defended than it now appears. A low gap about two metres wide in the north-east of the scarp may preserve the position of an original entrance, though the detail is too eroded to be certain.

The interior is grassy and fairly level, though a large mound of field clearance debris, now buried under overgrowth, occupies the south-east quadrant, the accumulated result of generations of farmers tidying their fields at the expense of the archaeology beneath. Two field fences cut across the rath, one running on a roughly north-north-east to south-south-west axis and a second extending perpendicular to it across the north-west quadrant, evidence that the boundary of the modern townland of Killedan has been drawn straight through the monument, treating an early medieval enclosure as simply another piece of ground to be divided and farmed.

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