Ringfort (Rath), Sheefin, Co. Westmeath
Co. Westmeath |
Ringforts
On a knoll along the lower western face of a ridge in County Westmeath, there sits a ringfort whose outline tells a story of gradual erasure.
Ringforts, sometimes called raths, are enclosed farmsteads typically dating from the early medieval period, defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches that once protected a household and its livestock. This one at Sheefin has had a rougher time than most, and what survives is an elongated, scarped oval, roughly 40 metres north to south and 15 metres east to west, enclosed by a poorly preserved bank of earth and stone.
The clearest evidence of what happened here comes from comparing two Ordnance Survey maps. The 1837 six-inch edition shows a neatly oval enclosure, with a Roman Catholic chapel marked immediately to the south-east. By the time the 1911 twenty-five-inch edition was produced, the shape had become distinctly kidney-like, indicating that the eastern quadrant had been partially quarried away in the intervening decades. Quarrying has since removed further material from the north-eastern quadrant and a portion of the western perimeter. There is an entrance gap at the south-west, 2.3 metres wide, with a sloping causeway beside it, though this feature may be of relatively recent origin and connected to the quarrying activity rather than to the fort's original design. Inside, the ground rises toward the centre, and faint cultivation ridges run north-east to south-west, the traces of agricultural use long after the ringfort ceased to function as a settlement. A field fence now cuts across the southern perimeter, and by 2011 the whole site had become covered in trees, further obscuring whatever earthworks remain beneath.