Ringfort (Rath), Rathkip, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Rathkip, Co. Mayo

Beneath a modern house and its garden in Rathkip, County Mayo, the faint outline of an early medieval settlement has been quietly erased.

A rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, was a roughly circular earthen enclosure, typically banked and ditched, used as a farmstead during the early medieval period. This one, measuring approximately 25 metres in diameter, sits on a rise at the north-western end of a ridge running north-west to south-east, a position typical of such sites, which were often placed to command a view of the surrounding land.

The enclosure appears on both the 1837 and 1930 Ordnance Survey six-inch maps, depicted as a roughly circular embanked form. By the time the 1930 survey was made, portions of the eastern and southern sections had already been absorbed into later field boundaries, a common fate for earthworks that remained useful as convenient ready-made walls long after their original purpose was forgotten. Today, nothing is visible at ground level. The site is partly overlain by a modern house and garden, and whatever physical trace once remained has been lost to development. A second rath survives approximately 70 metres to the north-east, a reminder that such enclosures were rarely isolated; early medieval farmsteads often clustered within sight of one another across the Irish countryside.

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), Rathkip, Co. Mayo. 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