Ringfort (Rath), Newtown, Co. Kilkenny

Co. Kilkenny |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Newtown, Co. Kilkenny

A low circular earthwork sitting in a small field above the Dinin river in County Kilkenny is easy to walk past without registering what you are looking at.

The grass has long since grown over the banks, the surrounding farmland has absorbed it into its ordinary rhythms, and yet the geometry is unmistakably deliberate. This is a rath, a type of ringfort consisting of a raised circular platform enclosed by an earthen bank and a fosse, the fosse being a shallow ditched depression dug to reinforce the boundary. Thousands of these were built across Ireland, mostly during the early medieval period, and they served as enclosed farmsteads for single families or small communities.

This particular example sits on gently sloping ground, positioned just above a steep fall towards the Dinin river some 450 metres to the south-east. The platform is roughly circular, measuring around 30 metres north to south and 28 metres east to west. Its enclosing bank stands about 1.2 metres high on the exterior and 0.8 metres on the interior side, with a width of approximately 3 metres. The fosse beyond it is modest, around 2 metres wide and 0.4 metres deep, and now survives only in the southern and western sectors. There are two entrances, one to the south-east at roughly 8 metres wide and one to the south-west at around 6 metres, and at least one of these appears to have been widened at some point, probably to accommodate agricultural use in later centuries. The interior tilts gently southward, following the natural fall of the land rather than being levelled flat, which gives some sense of how the builders worked with the existing terrain rather than dramatically reshaping it. Views from the site extend fairly well in most directions, though the land climbs gradually to the north, and the position above the river valley would have made it a reasonably well-chosen spot for a household wanting to keep an eye on its surroundings.

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Pete F
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