Ringfort (Rath), Dromdoneen, Co. Cork
Co. Cork |
Ringforts
On a north-facing slope above the Mealagh River in West Cork, a low circular ridge in the grassland is almost all that remains of an ancient ringfort.
What was once a substantial enclosure, probably a defended farmstead of the early medieval period, has been reduced over centuries to a barely perceptible rise in the ground, roughly twenty-five yards across. Only a section of the original bank, standing to about 1.6 metres, survives along its western to eastern arc; the rest has been ploughed or worn flat.
Ringforts, known in Irish as raths when they were earthen rather than stone-built, were the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically enclosing a family's dwelling and outbuildings within a raised bank and ditch. This one at Dromdoneen was already recorded as a circular enclosure on the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1842, which suggests it was at least partially legible in the landscape at that time. By 1998, when researcher Myler documented the site, it had diminished considerably. Myler also noted something potentially more interesting: a well or drain visible lower on the same slope, which may point to a souterrain connected with the fort. A souterrain is an underground passage or chamber, usually stone-lined, typically used for storage or as a refuge, and they are frequently found in association with ringforts across Ireland. Whether the feature here is genuinely linked to the enclosure above remains unconfirmed.
The site sits in open grassland west of the Mealagh River, and its subtlety is precisely what makes it worth attention. There is no obvious monument to locate, only that faint ridge and the question of what lies beneath the slope below it.