Ringfort (Rath), Skeheenaranky, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Ringforts
In the townland of Skeheenaranky, a circular earthwork roughly 54 metres across sits on a steep north-west-facing hillside, quietly absorbing centuries of practical interference.
Part of it has been turned over as a vegetable plot. A lime kiln, a structure once used for burning limestone to produce agricultural quicklime, was recorded on its eastern bank as far back as the first six-inch Ordnance Survey map of 1840, but both the kiln and the bank in that quarter have since vanished entirely. What remains is a monument that has been dug into, built upon, quarried at its edges, and divided by field boundaries, yet still holds enough of its original shape to be recognised for what it is.
The earthwork belongs to a class of monument known as a ringfort or rath, a type of enclosed settlement common across Ireland during the early medieval period, roughly the fifth to twelfth centuries. They typically served as farmsteads, their encircling banks and ditches defining a protected domestic space rather than a military fortification. At Skeheenaranky, the interior slopes downward to the north-west, and there is a slight depression at the centre. The enclosing bank has been modified considerably over the years; its dimensions vary noticeably depending on where you measure, with the internal height reaching around 1.35 metres in places and the external face considerably more modest. A shallow fosse, the ditch that originally ran outside the bank, still survives at roughly half a metre in depth and just under two metres wide. The northern quadrant is where the original form is best preserved, its edge defined by a scarp, a natural or cut slope in the ground, with a field boundary running along its base.