Ringfort (Rath), Raheen (Coshma By.), Co. Limerick

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Raheen (Coshma By.), Co. Limerick

A low scarp and a shallow ditch are often all that remains of Ireland's ringforts, and this example in Raheen townland, County Limerick, is no exception.

What makes it worth pausing over is less what survives above ground and more what surrounds it. Sitting on rough, poorly drained pasture just twenty metres south-west of a watercourse that marks the townland boundary with Grange, this sub-circular earthwork occupies a landscape so densely layered with early settlement evidence that almost any direction you look from it produces another archaeological feature. Lough Gur, one of the most archaeologically significant lake complexes in Ireland, lies only 1.2 kilometres to the east-south-east, and the broader field system of which this rath forms a part contains at least two further enclosures within 135 metres.

A rath, to use the Irish term, is a ringfort: a roughly circular enclosure defined by an earthen bank and external ditch, typically built during the early medieval period, roughly 500 to 1000 AD, and used as a farmstead by a family of some local standing. This one measures approximately 37 metres north to south and 34 metres east to west, dimensions recorded when it was first mapped on the Ordnance Survey's 25-inch edition of 1897. Aerial photography has since done much of the interpretive work. A Bruff aerial photographic survey in 1986 confirmed the enclosure's form, and an oblique aerial photograph taken on 5 January 2003 showed it intersected at the west and south by linear cropmarks, the ghostly traces of earlier boundaries or field divisions that had long since been ploughed or silted into invisibility at ground level. More recent orthophotography, including imagery captured between 2005 and 2012 and a Google Earth image from September 2020, still shows the circular outline clearly.

The monument sits within working farmland and is not formally accessible to the public, so any visit would require landowner permission. The surrounding ground is described as poorly drained, which means heavy footwear is advisable and wet seasons will make the going uncomfortable. The cropmarks that cut across the enclosure are only legible from the air, so the most useful way to appreciate the full picture is through the aerial imagery referenced in the Archaeological Survey of Ireland's records. Those planning to visit the wider Lough Gur area, which has a dedicated visitor centre and well-maintained paths around the lake shore, will find this rath sits quietly in the agricultural hinterland to the north-west, largely unmarked and easy to overlook from any road.

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