Ringfort (Rath), Lislackagh, Co. Mayo

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Lislackagh, Co. Mayo

Two ringforts facing each other across a stream is not a common arrangement, and the pair at Lislackagh offers a quietly curious example of early medieval settlement logic.

The rath on the eastern bank sits on a gentle rise in pasture, with the stream running about twenty metres to its north. A disused railway line cuts through the landscape fifty metres to the southeast, a reminder that this agricultural ground has been shaped by more than one era of ambition.

A rath is a ringfort, the circular or oval enclosed farmstead that was the dominant settlement type in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries. This one is an oval platform, measuring around 26 metres east to west and nearly 23 metres north to south, defined by a scarp rather than a built-up bank. The scarp varies considerably in height, from about 0.8 metres on the southern side to 2.4 metres on the northern, where the natural fall of the ground adds to the effect and the monument is at its most legible. The northeastern to northwestern arc is the best-preserved stretch, retaining a pronounced external slope. Elsewhere, the picture is less clear. A section on the northeastern to eastern side has been levelled over a width of about eight metres, the southeastern arc is low and uneven, and the western side was disturbed when a field fence that had abutted it was taken away. Field boundaries have also been removed on the southeastern, southwestern, and northern sides, and debris from field clearance has been dumped across the interior. Across the stream, roughly a hundred metres to the west, a second rath occupies the opposite bank, the two enclosures oriented toward the same watercourse as if in quiet acknowledgement of each other.

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