Ringfort (Rath), Kilmalogue, Co. Offaly

Co. Offaly |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Kilmalogue, Co. Offaly

On a low hillock rising out of the flat, undulating landscape of County Offaly, there is a ringfort that has been slowly disappearing into itself.

What survives is partial and worn: a stretch of earthen bank running from the western to the southern arc, still standing about a metre high on the interior but reduced to just thirty centimetres on the outside, and a shallow external fosse, the encircling ditch that once defined the boundary of the enclosure, no more than half a metre deep and a metre wide. The interior is pocked with hollows, the visible consequence of soil having been extracted over time, likely by generations of people finding the site more useful as a source of material than as something worth preserving.

Ringforts, known variously as raths or lios depending on regional tradition, were the standard form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically consisting of a circular area enclosed by one or more earthen banks and ditches. Most housed a farmstead and its associated buildings. The example at Kilmalogue appears to have been a reasonably substantial one. Analysis of what survives suggests the enclosure was originally oval rather than circular, measuring approximately 64 metres north to south and 70 metres east to west at its outer extent, with an internal diameter of around 40 metres. A mound visible in the western sector is thought to be the accumulated debris from the collapse or deliberate removal of the bank on that side, meaning the earthwork has in effect consumed part of its own perimeter. The overall picture is of a site that was once considerable but has been worn down steadily, with each generation leaving a little less of it behind.

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