Ringfort (Rath), Cordoagh Glebe, Co. Cavan

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Cordoagh Glebe, Co. Cavan

In the townland of Cordoagh Glebe in County Cavan, a circular raised platform sits in the landscape with its original purpose largely obscured by centuries of agricultural use.

The earthwork is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, a type of enclosed farmstead built predominantly during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands of these structures survive across Ireland, yet each one carries its own particular state of survival or loss, and this example in Cavan tells a quiet story of gradual erasure.

The rath measures approximately 28 metres in internal diameter, which places it within the typical range for these enclosures, most of which were home to a single farming family and their livestock. It retains a substantial earthen bank and a wide, deep fosse, the external ditch dug to provide material for the bank and to reinforce the boundary. What makes the site notable is the degree to which it has been worked over. A significant arc of the perimeter, running from the north-north-east around through south to west-south-west, has been levelled, most likely during land improvement or drainage work at some point after the site ceased to function as a living enclosure. The remainder has been absorbed into an existing field boundary, so the line of the original structure now does double duty as a modern division between fields. The original entrance, which in many ringforts appears as a deliberate gap or causeway through the bank and fosse, can no longer be identified here.

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Pete F
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