Ringfort (Rath), Rathnaguppaun, Co. Mayo

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Ringfort (Rath), Rathnaguppaun, Co. Mayo

Sitting in ordinary level pasture in County Mayo, this earthwork carries more inside it than its modest profile suggests.

The enclosure is roughly circular, measuring 37 metres north to south and 38 metres east to west, and its earthen bank still rises to about 1.3 metres. A gap on the southern side, nearly four metres wide, marks what is likely the original entrance. None of this is especially unusual for a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, which was the standard form of enclosed farmstead across early medieval Ireland, typically housing a single family and their livestock. What lifts this one slightly out of the ordinary is what lies beneath it.

In the north-eastern portion of the interior, a souterrain has been recorded. A souterrain is an underground stone-lined passage or chamber, built during the early medieval period and associated with ringforts throughout Ireland. Their precise function is still debated, though storage and refuge are the most widely accepted explanations. The combination of a reasonably well-preserved earthen enclosure with an associated souterrain places this site within a tradition of rural settlement that was dominant in Ireland roughly between the sixth and tenth centuries. The area around Ballinrobe, Lough Mask, and Lough Carra has a considerable concentration of such remains, reflecting how intensively this part of Mayo was farmed and settled long before any later historical record takes hold.

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