Ringfort (Rath), Rathbrackan, Co. Longford
Co. Longford |
Ringforts
Two ringforts sharing a boundary is unusual enough, but what makes Rathbrackan quietly compelling is the way the pair are separated not by open ground but by a fosse, the shallow defensive ditch that in most ringforts runs around the outside of a single enclosure.
Here, that same feature becomes the dividing line between two distinct sites, the southern example described here and its northern neighbour, sitting cheek by jowl in the Co. Longford landscape.
A ringfort, or rath, is the remains of a roughly circular farmstead enclosure, typically dating from the early medieval period in Ireland, between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries. They were defined by earthen banks, ditches, or a combination of both, and this southern example follows that pattern, though in a worn and modest form. The raised circular interior measures approximately forty metres in diameter. Around the western and north-western arc, a low bank of earth and stone survives, between four metres wide and no more than seven-tenths of a metre high in places. Along other sections of the circuit, the enclosure is marked only by a low scarp, a slight step in the ground rather than a built bank, rising to under a metre. The fosse separating the two ringforts is shallow, around five metres wide and less than half a metre deep, but it is visible across much of the circuit. On the eastern side, an outer bank and an outer fosse add a further layer of definition, suggesting the enclosure was once more elaborately bounded on that side. No trace of the original entrance has been identified.