Ringfort (Rath), Newcastle, Co. Wicklow

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Newcastle, Co. Wicklow

On a west-facing slope in County Wicklow, an oval earthwork sits quietly in the undulating farmland near Newcastle, its outline just distinct enough from the surrounding fields to reward a careful eye.

This is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, a type of enclosed settlement built in their thousands across Ireland during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Most were farmsteads, defined by a raised circular or oval platform enclosed within an earthen bank and a surrounding ditch, called a fosse. This one follows that pattern faithfully, though part of it has been swallowed by later agricultural activity.

The site measures roughly 56 metres north to south and just under 42 metres east to west, making it a reasonably substantial example. The central platform varies considerably in height, rising from about half a metre at the southern end to as much as two metres at the north, which suggests the builders levelled and built up the ground deliberately to create a usable interior space. Around most of the perimeter, from south-southwest around through north to southeast, an earthen bank roughly four and a half metres wide and a fosse about four metres across still trace the original enclosure. A field boundary running northeast to southwest cuts across the southeastern portion of the site, and beyond that line the ground has been levelled, erasing whatever once stood there. No trace of an entrance has been identified, and no internal features are visible, which is not unusual for a site that has been subject to centuries of farming.

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Pete F
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