Ringfort (Rath), Lisfunshion, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Ringforts
What appears at first glance to be a double-banked ringfort in Lisfunshion turns out, on closer inspection, to be something of an optical illusion.
The outer bank that gives this Tipperary rath its seemingly impressive bivallate profile, the appearance of having two concentric defensive rings, is not an original defensive feature at all. It was created by the upcast spoil from a later agricultural field ditch dug parallel to the monument. The confusion is understandable, and the site still reads as substantial from ground level, but the archaeology quietly complicates that first impression.
The ringfort itself sits on the flat floor of a valley, with a small stream running east to west immediately to its south. The main enclosure is roughly circular, about 30 metres across, and is defined by an earthen bank and a wide, U-shaped fosse, the term for the ditch that typically surrounds such an enclosure, cut to a depth of nearly one and a half metres. Ringforts, known in Irish as raths when earthen, were the standard settlement form of early medieval Ireland, generally dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries, and served as enclosed farmsteads for a single family or small household. This example has a possible entrance gap in the eastern side, though notably without a causeway across the fosse to match it, which raises questions about its original function or later alteration. The Ordnance Survey six-inch maps of 1840 and 1907 both show the outer bank continuing south of the stream, but no physical trace of that continuation survives today. Inside the enclosure, tucked against the northern section of the inner bank, a low rectangular structure measuring roughly 6.6 metres by 13.7 metres has been identified. Its modest earthen banks and a probable entrance at the western end of its southern side suggest it was an ancillary building of some kind, perhaps a byre or storage structure, added within the protected interior of the rath.