Ringfort (Rath), Rosserk, Co. Mayo
Co. Mayo |
Ringforts
On a low ridge in the undulating pasture of Rosserk, Co. Mayo, there sits what remains of an early medieval ringfort, or rath, that has been quarried almost to the point of erasure.
A rath is a roughly circular enclosure, typically defined by an earthen bank and outer ditch, that served as a farmstead during the early medieval period in Ireland. This example, subcircular in plan and measuring roughly 18.7 metres northwest to southeast, made deliberate use of a natural rise in the ground. That advantage of elevation is now more apparent in its absence: a significant portion of the interior, around ten metres in diameter and up to 0.7 metres deep, has been dug away on the eastern and southern sides, and a further area immediately outside the enclosure to the southwest has been quarried out as well. What survives is a remnant scarp, the outer face of the original bank, still traceable in an arc from south to northwest and standing to an external height of roughly 1.6 metres in places.
The quarrying that has so diminished the site is a familiar story across Ireland, where earthworks were frequently dug into for stone, drainage, or agricultural improvement, sometimes over many generations. What makes this particular rath quietly interesting is its immediate context on the ridge. A second rath lies just 100 metres to the east-southeast along the same elevated ground, suggesting that this was once a deliberately settled landscape rather than an isolated farmstead. Around 400 metres to the south, on higher ground, a standing stone is visible, a reminder that the ridge was meaningful long before the early medieval period, though the precise relationship between the stone and the two ringforts is not recorded.