Ringfort (Rath), Lahesseragh, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Ringforts
On an east-facing slope in the uplands of County Tipperary, the ground has been coaxed into something deliberate.
What looks at first like a natural rise in the terrain resolves, on closer inspection, into the remnants of a rath, an early medieval ringfort, its circular enclosure still legible in the landscape despite centuries of weathering and gradual erosion.
The site measures roughly 26 metres across on its east-west axis, enclosed by an earthen bank that survives best on the western side, where it still stands about a metre above the surrounding ground on its outer face. Elsewhere the bank has been worn to little more than a scarp, a slight step in the land. Beyond the main bank, a fosse (a defensive ditch) roughly 3.5 metres wide runs around the exterior, and an outer bank, now only faintly raised, is visible from the south, west, and north-west. One of the more quietly thoughtful aspects of the construction is the way the interior has been built up on the eastern side to create a level platform, compensating for the natural fall of the slope. A gap of approximately two metres on the east side may mark the original entrance. Ringforts of this kind were the standard form of enclosed farmstead throughout early medieval Ireland, roughly the fifth to twelfth centuries, and thousands survive in varying states of preservation across the country. Most enclosed a single family's dwelling and agricultural activity; the bank and ditch were as much a statement of status and a means of managing livestock as they were defensive structures.


