Ringfort (Rath), Ballydurn, Co. Waterford
Co. Waterford |
Ringforts
On a broad plateau in County Waterford, at the western edge of a gentle south-to-north valley, a roughly circular patch of grass marks a place where someone once chose to live, work, and enclose their world. The enclosure measures approximately 43 metres east to west and 41 metres north to south, making it a substantial example of an earthen ringfort, known in Irish as a rath. These were the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from around the fifth to the twelfth century, and they were built in their thousands across the country. Most have been ploughed out, built over, or simply forgotten. This one survives, quietly, in a field.
What remains today is an eroded earthen bank, between 8.5 and 11 metres wide, though centuries of weathering have reduced it significantly. On the interior it rises only 20 to 40 centimetres above the enclosed ground level; on the exterior, where it would once have presented a more imposing face to the outside world, it still reaches 70 to 80 centimetres in places. On the western side it has worn down further to a low scarp of just 30 centimetres. There is slight evidence of a fosse, the ditch that would have been dug to provide material for the bank and to add a further obstacle to anyone approaching uninvited, running along the north-west to north-east arc and again along the south-east to south-west. The entrance, a gap 2.5 metres wide, faces east. A stream runs roughly 100 metres to the east, which would have been a practical consideration for whoever originally settled here.