Ringfort (Rath), Lisnagry, Co. Limerick

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Lisnagry, Co. Limerick

A ringfort that failed to appear on the first detailed Ordnance Survey of Ireland in 1840 is either very well disguised or very easy to overlook.

This one, sitting on the northern edge of an east-west ridge in Lisnagry, Co. Limerick, managed both for some time. Ringforts, known in Irish as raths, are the most common archaeological monument type in Ireland, typically the enclosed farmsteads of early medieval families, defined by one or more earthen banks and surrounding ditches. What makes this particular example quietly interesting is its combination of modest survival, ambiguous cartographic history, and proximity to a road with a loaded name.

The site lies within the former demesne lands of Mount Shannon House, which stands around 470 metres to the southwest. It does not appear on the 1840 edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map, though it was later annotated as 'Lisnagry' on the Cassini six-inch edition, where it is shown as a circular platform of approximately 27 metres in diameter defined by a scarp. When archaeologist Celie O'Rahilly of Limerick Corporation inspected the site on 30 September 1997, she recorded a circular enclosure with an internal diameter of approximately 29 metres, bounded by an earthen bank and an external fosse, meaning a ditch, running to a width of roughly six to seven metres. The fosse is barely detectable at the southeastern side, which may indicate the position of the original entrance to the enclosure. About 100 metres to the east runs a route recorded separately as 'Cromwell's Road', a name applied in Irish folklore to various roads and causeways, often older than the association suggests. By 2019, a property boundary to the north had begun to cut across the enclosing fosse at the northwest corner, a reminder that even low-profile earthworks can be quietly eroded by modern land use.

The ringfort sits on pasture and is most legible from above; its outline was clearly visible in Digital Globe orthophotos taken between 2011 and 2013, and Google Earth imagery from November 2019 confirms both the monument's shape and the encroachment of the northern boundary. Visitors approaching from the road to the east should be aware that the earthworks are subtle at ground level, particularly on the southeastern arc where the fosse has largely disappeared. The bank is the more reliable indicator of the enclosure's extent. The site is on private farmland within former demesne grounds, so access would require permission from the landowner.

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