Ringfort (Rath), Roolagh, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Ringforts
On the upland ground at Roolagh, there is technically a ringfort, but you would not know it by looking.
The earthworks have sunk so completely into the landscape that nothing is visible at ground level, leaving behind only the documentary record of something that was once substantial enough to be mapped, measured, and remarked upon.
What makes the site unusual is its form. Rather than the single circular enclosure familiar from across Ireland, the Roolagh example was recorded as a conjoined ringfort, two separate raths sharing a single fosse, the external ditch that typically defines a ringfort's boundary. The antiquary T. J. Westropp, writing in 1911 to 1912, described the arrangement in some detail: two forts enclosed within one fosse, with the larger of the two, situated to the north, measuring around 160 feet by 115 feet. That is a considerable footprint, and the paired layout suggests either deliberate planning or the gradual annexing of one enclosure to another, perhaps reflecting the needs of a farming household that had expanded over time. Ringforts in Ireland generally date to the early medieval period, roughly the sixth to twelfth centuries, and served as enclosed farmsteads for free families rather than as military fortifications in any strict sense. A conjoined example hints at a settlement of some complexity. The site was already plotted on the first edition Ordnance Survey six-inch map, which places its cartographic presence in the mid-nineteenth century, though the earthworks themselves are far older.