Ringfort (Rath), Toor, Co. Wicklow

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Toor, Co. Wicklow

Most ringforts in Ireland are solitary enclosures sitting in open farmland, where their circular profile is easily read from a distance.

The one at Toor in County Wicklow is a little different. It occupies a north-northwest-facing slope along the southern edge of a narrow, steep-sided valley, a setting that gives it an enclosed, almost secretive quality quite unlike the exposed hilltop examples found elsewhere in the county.

This is a bivallate ringfort, meaning it was defended by two concentric banks rather than the single bank more commonly encountered across the country. The inner bank, composed of earth and stone, measures roughly 34.3 metres east to west and 23 metres north to south, giving the enclosure an oval plan. Its height varies considerably, standing only about 0.3 metres above ground level on the southern side but rising to 2.5 metres at the north, where the natural slope demanded more substantial construction. Between the two banks lies an external fosse, a defensive ditch, two to three metres wide. The outer bank, to the north, rises to 1.8 metres on its exterior face. What makes the surviving fabric particularly legible is the revetment work, that is, the use of boulders to stabilise and face the banks. Low boulders line the inside edge of the inner bank and the outside face of the outer bank, and the entrance terminals on the inner bank are similarly reinforced with small stones. The entrance itself is just 1.7 metres wide and sits at the north. No internal features have been recorded within the enclosure, so what the space once contained, whether a farmstead, a house platform, or storage structures, remains unknown.

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