Ringfort (Rath), Killinagh, Co. Westmeath
Co. Westmeath |
Ringforts
What survives at Killinagh in County Westmeath is not much to look at, and that is precisely what makes it worth thinking about.
A circular earthwork roughly twenty-six metres across sits on a low natural rise, its enclosing bank so worn away in places as to be almost invisible. To the south and west, a large bog begins within a hundred metres. The structure is a rath, the most common type of ringfort in Ireland, a class of enclosed farmstead built predominantly during the early medieval period, between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands survive across the country in varying states of preservation, yet each one occupied a specific piece of ground for a reason, and the reasons tend to repay attention.
The site retains the essential anatomy of a rath, though time and subsequent landuse have been hard on it. An external fosse, the defensive ditch that once ran around the outside of the bank, is best preserved along the south-western arc. Elsewhere, later agricultural drains and field banks have cut across the outer edge of the fosse, erasing much of what was there. The bank itself has been almost completely levelled along the west-northwest, the north-northeast, and from the southeast around to the south. A narrow gap in the northeast, about one and a half metres wide, may represent the original entrance. Inside, the ground is uneven, marked by slight hollows and a gentle slope inward toward the centre, subtle irregularities that hint at whatever structures once stood within the enclosure.
