Ringfort (Rath), Rathlogan, Co. Kilkenny
Co. Kilkenny |
Ringforts
Two large hollows sit in the interior of this ringfort above the Rathlogan river valley, one in the north-west quadrant and one in the south-west, where the ground has subsided over what are thought to be collapsed caves, possibly the remains of a souterrain.
A souterrain is an underground passage, typically stone-lined, associated with early medieval settlement and used variously for storage, refuge, or ventilation. The fort itself is a circular raised platform of roughly 41 metres in diameter, enclosed by a bank that swells to nine metres wide on the western side and reaches its greatest external height of around four metres in the west-north-west. An external fosse, a defensive ditch, runs along the east, while a terrace takes its place to the west, and a second outer bank curves from the south-south-west around to the north-west.
The monument carries a Gaelic name with a specific clan attached to it. Writing in 1905, the historian William Carrigan recorded it as Ráth Ua Leocháin, the Rath of the O'Leochans, and noted that it had been partially levelled in 1846. The likely cause was quarrying: stone protrudes from the grass-covered outer bank, and the northern section has been visibly cut away, which is where a limekiln once stood. A limekiln is a furnace used to burn limestone into quicklime, widely used in nineteenth-century agriculture and construction, and the demand for building material during that period accounts for a great deal of damage to ancient earthworks across Ireland. The eastern and southern sectors of the bank show further degradation, consistent with prolonged disturbance. Immediately to the north-east of the ringfort lies an old church and graveyard, a pairing of early ecclesiastical and secular monuments that is not uncommon in the Irish landscape, though the relationship between this particular fort and its neighbouring church remains unrecorded.
The site sits just above the point where the valley floor begins to climb toward the hillside, on a terrace overlooking both the Rathlogan and Goul river valleys. The position gives a clear sense of why the location was chosen, offering wide views across two valleys while remaining sheltered from the exposed summit above.