Ringfort (Rath), Kiltamagh, Co. Mayo

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Kiltamagh, Co. Mayo

On the northern edge of Kiltimagh town in County Mayo, a low grassy ridge holds a ringfort that has been quietly absorbing the encroachment of modern life around it.

A factory sits roughly a hundred metres to the east-south-east, a housing estate slopes away to the south, and yet the circular earthwork at the top of the ridge continues to occupy its original commanding position, the ground falling steeply away to the north-north-west towards a flat spread of wettish pasture. The juxtaposition is oddly affecting: an early medieval farmstead enclosure, built to project authority across a landscape, now flanked by corrugated roofing and suburban cul-de-sacs.

The rath, a term for a ringfort defined by an earthen bank rather than stone walls, measures approximately 37 metres north to south and 36.5 metres east to west. Its enclosing bank survives as a sod-covered rise of earth and stone, between five and eight metres wide, standing about 1.45 metres on its outer face. At some later point, a drystone field wall was built along the western to south-eastern arc of the bank, sitting on top of it rather than replacing it. A break in the south-west of the bank, poorly defined now and used for tractor access, may correspond to the original entrance; a loose heap of boulders and slabs to the west of the gap hints at structural material that was never cleared away or was perhaps deposited there during later agricultural use. The southern arc of the rath has become heavily overgrown. At the centre of the level interior, a large horizontal slab protrudes slightly from the turf, covering a blocked-up souterrain. A souterrain is an underground passage or chamber, typically stone-lined, associated with early medieval settlements and used variously for storage, refuge, or as a means of concealed movement. This one is sealed, its interior no longer accessible, but its presence confirms that whoever lived within this enclosure invested considerable labour in the site.

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