Enclosure, Rath, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Enclosures
Most enclosures of early medieval Ireland are circular, so the D-shaped outline of this small drystone structure in County Clare is an immediate puzzle.
Sitting on a ridge above a river valley, with the ground dropping away sharply to the east, it measures roughly 26 metres east to west and 20 metres north to south, its western side running in an unusually straight line rather than following the curve you would expect. The wall itself is modest, between 0.4 and 0.6 metres wide and standing about 0.8 metres high, built in the drystone tradition, meaning without mortar, with stones carefully laid to hold each other in place. Today it is heavily overgrown with blackthorn, and spoil from cleared neighbouring fields has been dumped along its western and northern edges, pressing in on the structure from the very sides that might once have offered the clearest view of it.
The shape is what invites speculation. A ringfort, the term used for the circular or oval enclosed farmsteads that dot the Irish countryside in their thousands, typically owes its rounded form to the practical geometry of defence and livestock management. A straight wall on one side, as seen here, sometimes reflects a deliberate boundary, a pre-existing feature such as a track or field edge that was incorporated into the design, or simply a different function altogether. The fact that another ringfort sits just 21 metres to the west adds further texture to the picture, suggesting this part of the Clare ridge was a focus of activity at some point, with two distinct enclosures in close and perhaps deliberate proximity to one another.