Ringfort (Rath), Oolahills East, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Ringforts
A ring of trees growing over a low bank in a County Limerick pasture is easy to walk past without a second thought, but the circular earthwork at Oolahills East is considerably older than the hedgerows around it.
Ringforts, sometimes called raths, were enclosed farmsteads typically built during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, consisting of a raised interior platform surrounded by one or more earthen banks and an outer ditch, known as a fosse. This one sits on a gentle rise in undulating grazing land, positioned to take in open views to the north and south-east, the kind of placement that suggests its builders were as interested in seeing who was coming as in simply marking their territory.
The Archaeological Survey of Ireland inspected the site in 1999 and recorded it as a raised circular area with an internal diameter of roughly 22 metres, enclosed by a bank that has been largely worn down to a low scarp. The bank measures about 4.6 metres wide, standing only 0.2 metres above the interior and 0.8 metres above the outer ground level. Beyond it, a fosse roughly 3.6 metres wide and 0.45 metres deep still traces most of the circuit, though the eastern section has been filled in over the years. A causewayed entrance, essentially a gap where the ditch was bridged to allow access, survives on the eastern side, measuring about 2 metres across. The site had already been mapped by the first Ordnance Survey edition of 1840, appearing as a circular earthwork on the six-inch sheet, and again on the more detailed 25-inch edition of 1897. Within 140 metres to the south-west lies a holy well known as Tobernarova, a proximity that is not unusual in the Irish landscape, where early ecclesiastical sites and older enclosures frequently cluster together.
The ringfort lies in private agricultural land, so access would require the landowner's permission. For those who do visit, the bank and fosse are most legible from a slight distance, where the curve of the treeline helps trace the full circuit. The filled-in eastern fosse is the main break in the pattern, but the causewayed entrance gap in the bank is still discernible on the ground. Aerial imagery, including photographs taken between 2005 and 2018, shows the enclosure clearly as a dark circular shadow against the surrounding fields, and comparing those images with the 1897 OS map gives a useful sense of how little, and how much, has changed.