Ringfort (Rath), Kilmacomma, Co. Waterford
Co. Waterford |
Ringforts
Somewhere in the townland of Kilmacomma in County Waterford, a roughly circular earthwork sits overgrown on a north-facing slope, its original entrance entirely unknown. That last detail is quietly telling. Most ringforts, the enclosed farmsteads of early medieval Ireland built roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, preserve at least a gap or a causeway across their surrounding ditch to indicate where people once came and went. Here, that feature has either been destroyed or is simply buried beneath the vegetation, leaving the enclosure without an obvious way in or out.
The structure itself is a rath, the most common type of ringfort, defined by an earthen and stone bank rather than a stone wall. The enclosure measures approximately 34 metres north to south and 31 metres east to west, making it a reasonably substantial example. Its defining bank varies considerably depending on where you measure: on the western side it rises only about 30 centimetres above the interior ground level, while on the southern, upslope side it reaches 1.3 metres internally and between 1.2 and 1.5 metres on the exterior face. The variation is largely a consequence of the site's position on a slope, where gravity and centuries of soil creep have shifted material downhill. On the north-facing arc, the bank has been worn down to a simple scarp roughly 1.6 metres high. Beyond the bank runs an outer fosse, a ditch, about two metres wide at its base and between half a metre and 1.3 metres deep. There is also a secondary external bank running roughly from south-southwest to northeast, though part of it has been absorbed into a later field wall, a fate that has befallen countless earthworks across the Irish countryside.