Ringfort (Rath), Lotteragh Upper, Co. Limerick

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Lotteragh Upper, Co. Limerick

Two low mounds sit roughly 150 metres apart on the west bank of the Maigue river in County Limerick, each one the remains of an early medieval ringfort so thoroughly swallowed by scrub and overgrowth that the casual passer-by would register nothing more than a tangle of vegetation and a slight rise in the ground.

Locally, both sites are known as the Raheens, a name that comes from the Irish Raithíní, meaning simply "little forts", which tells you something about how long this landscape has held onto its memory of them, even as the physical evidence quietly disappears.

The more closely documented of the two was described in detail by the antiquarian T. J. Westropp, writing in 1916 to 1917. He recorded a raised, roughly circular platform about 17.2 metres in diameter, with a low bank along its outer edge rising to around 0.6 metres. What makes the site more substantial than it might appear from that description is the scarped edge beneath, which drops sharply to a height of 8.4 metres at the north-east and around 4.8 metres elsewhere, giving the whole thing the elevated, defended profile that archaeologist Seán P. Ó Ríordáin later catalogued in 1974 as characteristic of the platform-type ringfort, a category where the enclosed area sits noticeably raised above the surrounding ground rather than being simply encircled by a bank. Beyond the scarp lies a fosse, then a bank, then a second fosse, together spanning about 3.6 metres in width and reaching nearly 1.8 metres in depth. These are not insignificant earthworks, even if they are now largely invisible.

Access to the site is complicated by its current condition. The northern edge appears to have been cut through by a farm trackway of recent construction, and coniferous trees have been planted in the area immediately to the north-west, closing in the approach further. A field boundary runs along the eastern side and a driveway along the west. The overgrowth that now covers the site entirely means that the earthwork profile Westropp described can no longer be read easily from ground level. Anyone looking for the companion site should bear in mind it lies about 150 metres to the east-south-east; together the two Raheens offer a rare instance of paired ringforts, a relationship that remains unexplained but was clearly meaningful enough to survive in local naming tradition across many centuries.

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