Ringfort (Rath), Rivers, Co. Limerick

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Rivers, Co. Limerick

Somewhere between two back gardens near Annacotty, a few metres of curving earthwork mark what was once a complete ringfort, the kind of early medieval enclosure that once numbered in the tens of thousands across Ireland.

Ringforts, also called raths, were typically circular raised enclosures defined by one or more earthen banks, used as farmsteads and family settlements from roughly the early centuries AD through the early medieval period. This one has been divided, excavated, built around, and boundary-crossed so many times that only a D-shaped remnant survives, yet it remains recognisable to anyone who knows what they are looking for.

The 1840 Ordnance Survey six-inch map labels the site 'Bundotia Fort' and shows it as a complete circular enclosure, already interrupted at the west and south by a post-1700 field boundary. By the time the revised OS 25-inch map was produced in 1897, the southwest quadrant had been levelled, leaving a semi-circular earthwork. The damage continued into the twentieth century. A landowner of the northern portion recalled a 'hole' just outside the north-northeast edge that was filled in around 1960, which surveyors have identified as the likely location of a partially collapsed souterrain, an underground passage or chamber associated with many ringforts and used for storage or refuge. Then, around 1996, mechanical excavation into the southern third pushed the scarped edge back against the property boundary, leaving a low mound of displaced soil roughly 0.65 metres high. The site was recorded by Edmond O'Donovan and uploaded to the record in June 2020.

The Mulkear River runs about 150 metres to the west, and Annacotty Bridge lies roughly 200 metres to the south-southeast, which gives a reasonable sense of the setting. What survives today measures approximately 21.5 metres northwest to southeast and 20 metres northeast to southwest, now bisected by a recent property boundary and folded into the gardens of modern housing. The northern portion is the better-preserved section, where the curving scarp still rises visibly above the surrounding ground surface. It is the kind of site that rewards careful looking rather than casual observation, the geometry of the original enclosure emerging gradually once you understand what the surviving curve of earth is trying to describe.

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