Ringfort (Rath), Tullamain, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Tullamain, Co. Tipperary

A small hillock in arable land near Tullamain carries the remains of a double-banked ringfort, the kind of early medieval enclosure that once dotted the Irish countryside in their tens of thousands, most now reduced to faint shadows in ploughed fields.

What makes this one worth pausing over is its layered earthwork profile: two concentric banks separated by a fosse, the whole arrangement still readable in the landscape despite centuries of agricultural pressure.

A ringfort, or rath, was typically a enclosed farmstead of the early medieval period, its earthen banks and ditches marking out a defended space for a family and their livestock rather than any grand military installation. This example measures roughly 40 metres north to south and 38 metres east to west, with an outer bank reaching an external height of 1.75 metres and an inner bank just over 1.5 metres on its outer face. The intervening fosse, a cut ditch running between the two banks, is about 9.2 metres wide and half a metre deep. A field boundary running roughly north to south has truncated both the fosse and the outer bank along the north-east to south-east arc, which is the kind of incremental damage that accumulates quietly over generations of land management. A breach of between six and eight metres opens at the west-south-west, likely the original entrance or a later gap worn through the earthwork. Cahill, writing in 1982, identified what appears to be a house site of around 12 metres in diameter within the south-east portion of the interior, where the ground faces east-south-east and tussocks of grass now cover whatever remains below. A separate enclosure lies approximately 250 metres to the north-north-east, suggesting this was not an isolated farmstead but part of a wider pattern of early settlement across this stretch of Tipperary.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Ringfort (Rath), Tullamain, Co. Tipperary. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement