Ringfort (Rath), Larkhill, Co. Sligo
Co. Sligo |
Ringforts
On the lower slopes of the Ox Mountains in County Sligo, a roughly circular earthwork sits across a narrow terrace where the ground drops away sharply to the north.
What makes this rath, or earthen ringfort, quietly compelling is not just its survival but the complexity preserved within it. Ringforts were enclosed farmsteads of the early medieval period, typically built between around 500 and 1000 AD, and thousands once dotted the Irish countryside. Most are defined by a single bank and ditch. This one has two concentric earthen banks, a fosse between them, and a steep natural scarp completing the circuit on the northern side, making it a more elaborately defended enclosure than the majority of its kind.
The structure measures roughly 23 metres north to south and 26 metres east to west. The inner bank is substantial, reaching an external height of 2.8 metres in places, and along the south-south-east arc there is an internal revetment of drystone walling, a detail suggesting the builders reinforced the earthwork with carefully laid unmortared stone. The entrance, 3 metres wide and positioned at the south, is partially obscured by a pile of field clearance stones gathered there in later centuries, though the original causeway across the fosse, 1.8 metres wide, is still traceable. The outer bank's entrance at the south has been blocked with stones at some point. Along the western arc, the crests of both banks retain the low remains of a wall, about 1.2 metres wide, indicating that the earthen defences once carried a stone superstructure. Inside the enclosure, a later field boundary cuts across the interior, and on its western side sits the footprint of a small roughly square structure defined by low, sod-covered wall footings, most likely a building added to the site long after its original occupation had ended. A narrow terrace, its outer edge marked by stones, runs around the base of the northern scarp, and the surrounding slopes have in recent times been planted with trees.