Ringfort (Rath), Rahaberna, Co. Sligo

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Rahaberna, Co. Sligo

A public road runs straight through this early medieval enclosure, cutting across its edge at two points, which gives some sense of how thoroughly the modern world has reorganised the landscape around it.

The rath at Rahaberna sits on a gentle rise in pasture ground in County Sligo, and at roughly 26 metres in diameter it is a modest example of its type, though what survives is still legible enough to read. A rath is an earthen ringfort, the kind of enclosed farmstead that was built in Ireland from roughly the early centuries AD through to the early medieval period, and thousands of them survive across the country in varying states of completeness.

The enclosure here takes the form of a roughly circular raised area defined by a broad flat-topped bank of earth and stone, almost three metres wide and rising about one and a half metres above the interior. Beyond that bank lies a berm, a flat shelf of ground running around the outside, roughly ten metres wide, and beyond that again an external scarp dropping nearly two metres. The combination of berm and outer scarp would once have formed a significant defensive or boundary feature, giving the whole enclosure considerably more visual presence than the bank alone would suggest. There is no fosse, the external ditch that often accompanies such sites, visible at ground level. The bank appears to be missing or much reduced along the north-west to east arc, which coincides with where the road crosses the site. On the south-east to north-west side, the berm and external scarp have been removed entirely, and a modern house stands about twenty metres to the west. Dense overgrowth at the edges prevents a clear picture of what may survive elsewhere around the perimeter, and the original entrance has not been identified.

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Pete F
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