Ringfort (Rath), Knockaphonery, Co. Cork
Co. Cork |
Ringforts
On a north-facing pasture slope in Knockaphonery, County Cork, a roughly circular enclosure sits quietly in the landscape, its raised earthen bank still reaching a metre and a half in height along much of its arc.
This is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, the most common class of monument surviving in the Irish countryside. Thousands were built, mostly during the early medieval period, and they served as enclosed farmsteads for families of some local standing. What gives this one a degree of interest is the variation in its construction: the bank is faced with stone in parts and elsewhere becomes a simple scarp, a cut into the natural slope rather than a built-up wall, suggesting either different phases of work or a practical response to whatever materials were to hand at the time.
The enclosure measures approximately 31 metres north to south and 30 metres east to west, making it a reasonably substantial example of its type. A silted-up external fosse, the ditch dug to provide material for the bank and to add a further barrier around the perimeter, still traces the outer edge, though it has filled with sediment over the centuries. There is a break in the bank to the south-west, roughly 3.7 metres wide, which most likely marks the original entrance. Entrances on the south or west sides are common in ringforts and are thought to relate to the movement of livestock and the orientation of domestic activity within.