Ringfort (Rath), Lowpark, Co. Westmeath

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Lowpark, Co. Westmeath

A low earthen ring in a Westmeath field might not announce itself dramatically, but the rath at Lowpark carries a quiet strangeness that rewards a second look.

What appears to be a routine boundary bank running along the edge of the townland is, in its north-western to north-eastern arc, the substantially intact rim of an early medieval ringfort, a circular enclosure originally defined by a raised earthen bank and an external fosse, the shallow ditch that ran around the outside to reinforce both the defence and the status of whoever lived within. The interior rises gently towards the centre, a detail typical of these sites, where drainage and a degree of visual elevation over the surrounding land mattered to their builders.

Descriptions recorded in 1971 and 1976 put the enclosure at roughly 49 metres east to west and 47 metres north to south, making it a substantial example of its type. By that point the bank had already suffered on its south-western to western side, where it had been partially levelled, and the perimeter had been absorbed into the townland boundary line along its western and north-north-western stretch, a fate that befell many ringforts as field systems were reorganised over the centuries. There is a wide gap on the eastern side, measuring around 6.5 metres across at the top and 3 metres at the base, and a narrower disturbance further around at the north. More recently, farm sheds have been constructed directly against the outer face of the bank on the east, pressing up against the monument where that original entrance gap already existed. The bank itself, despite everything, remains clearly legible from the air.

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