Ringfort (Rath), Redmondstown, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Ringforts
On the edge of a factory complex in County Tipperary, an early medieval ringfort sits on a natural rise, doing its best to go unnoticed.
The Medite factory lies immediately to the west, and the landscaping carried out around the site has reshaped the ground to the south and south-west, possibly widening the outer ditch in the process. The interior has become so overgrown as to be inaccessible, and what lies within is largely a matter of measurement and inference rather than direct observation.
A ringfort, or rath, is a roughly circular enclosure defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches, typically dating from the early medieval period and associated with farmsteads or minor settlement. This example is a substantial one. Based on the six-inch Ordnance Survey map, the enclosed area measures somewhere between 31 and 36 metres across. The surrounding bank has a crest width of around 2.1 metres, a base spread of 8.2 metres, and rises to over 3 metres above the outer fosse, which is the ditch encircling the bank. That fosse itself is 7.1 metres wide. A 1983 Office of Public Works inspection described a large, flattish circular interior on a very high embankment, with a silted-up fosse outside and a pronounced depression running west to east along the southern half of the interior. That depression is thought to be the result of quarrying rather than any original feature of the fort. The entrance is believed to have been on the eastern side.
The site is not especially accessible, and the overgrowth noted at inspection makes the interior effectively off-limits. What can be appreciated from the exterior is the scale of the earthworks, which remain clearly legible despite the modern industrial neighbour to the west and the altered ground levels nearby.