Ringfort (Rath), Glenastar, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Ringforts
A circle drawn in earth nearly two thousand years ago is still legible in a field in Glenastar, if you know what you are looking at.
The structure is a rath, the most common type of ringfort found across Ireland, essentially a circular enclosure formed by a raised earthen bank and an outer ditch, or fosse, designed to mark territory and protect a farmstead and its livestock. This particular example stretches roughly 38 metres across its east-west axis, which places it at a respectable size for the type, and it sits on a south-facing slope immediately north of a road, oriented, as so many of these sites are, to catch the light and drain the rain.
The site was recorded by Denis Power and uploaded to the national monuments record in August 2011. What the survey found was a monument in the slow process of being reclaimed, by vegetation and by cattle. The earthen bank still stands to an external height of around 1.55 metres on its better-preserved sections, though the interior face has been worn considerably lower, dropping to just 0.1 metres along the southern arc where livestock have grazed and moved across the feature over many generations. The outer fosse, which runs 2.1 metres wide and drops to a depth of 1.2 metres, is most clearly visible between the west-southwest and east, while the northeastern stretch has been obscured by overgrowth. There is a gap of around 4 metres in the bank at the north-northeast, almost certainly the original entrance. Mature deciduous trees have established themselves along the bank, and at the time of recording, several had recently fallen, leaving their trunks lying across the otherwise level interior.
The site sits in working pasture, so access depends on the landowner's permission, and the ground underfoot will be rough. The fosse is easiest to read on the western and southwestern sides, where the ditch retains its shape and the relationship between bank and enclosure is clearest. The fallen trees make moving through the interior awkward in places, but they also add to the layered quality of the thing: early medieval earthwork, mature woodland, and the ordinary business of an Irish cattle farm all occupying the same 38-metre circle at once.