Ringfort (Rath), Cecilstown, Co. Cork

Co. Cork |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Cecilstown, Co. Cork

Beneath the garden of a modern bungalow in Cecilstown, County Cork, the ground holds the memory of an early medieval ringfort, a circular earthwork that enclosed a farmstead perhaps a thousand or more years ago, and which now leaves no trace whatsoever on the surface.

This is a site that exists almost entirely on paper, preserved in maps and a single pre-war survey, while the earth itself has been smoothed flat.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths, were typically enclosed homesteads defined by one or more banks of earth and an outer ditch, or fosse, and they are among the most common archaeological monument types in Ireland. The Cecilstown example was recorded in 1934 by Bowman, who noted a single-ramparted fort on land belonging to a T. Lyon, with a bank roughly five feet high and a diameter of around 31 yards. The fosse had already been infilled by that point, but the earthwork itself was still standing. Earlier Ordnance Survey maps tell a similar story: the 1842 six-inch map shows the area planted with trees, while the 1905 edition depicts a hachured circular enclosure roughly 28 metres across, and the 1937 map records it still as a raised circular area, slightly smaller in measured diameter at around 25 metres, consistent with decades of gradual erosion and settlement. Sometime around 1985, according to local information, the fort was levelled entirely to make way for the construction of a bungalow. What had survived in some form for centuries, through plantation and ploughing and the slow encroachment of modern land use, was cleared within living memory.

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), Cecilstown, Co. Cork. 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