Ringfort (Rath), Rathkenny, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Rathkenny, Co. Tipperary

On an east-facing slope in County Tipperary, just inside the 400-foot contour, the ground still holds the shape of an early medieval farmstead.

The enclosure is oval, roughly 44 metres north to south and 35 metres east to west, and what survives is an earthen bank and an outer fosse, the shallow drainage or defensive ditch that once ran around the perimeter. A ringfort, or rath, was the standard dwelling unit of early medieval Ireland, typically enclosing a family's house, outbuildings, and livestock within one or more concentric banks and ditches. Thousands once dotted the Irish countryside; many have since been levelled by ploughing or quietly absorbed into field systems, which makes even a partially surviving example worth pausing over.

The bank here is best preserved in the south-west quadrant, where it still carries something close to its original profile, with an internal height of around 1.1 metres and an external height of 1.2 metres. Moving north and east, it diminishes to a low scarp, barely distinguishable from the slope. The outer fosse is faint along much of its circuit, visible with reasonable clarity from the west-north-west around to the east-north-east, but almost untraceable on the southern and western sides. An entrance gap, roughly 3.75 metres wide, opens at the south. The interior tilts down towards the east, following the natural lie of the ground. A modern field boundary has crept in from the south, its corner running directly into the fosse, a small collision between the medieval and the agricultural present. Cattle have also made their mark, breaching the bank at several points along the northern arc, the ordinary pressure of grazing animals continuing a process of slow erosion that has been working on this site for centuries.

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Pete F
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