Ringfort (Rath), Cuilmore, Co. Mayo

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Cuilmore, Co. Mayo

On a knoll in the pastureland of Cuilmore, a crescent of raised earth is almost all that survives of what was once a complete ringfort.

A rath, as these circular earthwork enclosures are known, typically consisted of a bank and ditch ringing a farmstead or high-status dwelling from the early medieval period. This one has been quarried almost out of existence, leaving only an arc of ground roughly twenty-two to twenty-four metres long on the western edge of the pit, with a curving outer scarp still standing about two metres high on the exterior. From that narrow surviving strip, which reaches no more than five metres wide at its broadest, the ground drops sharply away into the quarry below.

Ordnance Survey maps from 1838 and 1919 both show the rath as a complete circular enclosure, approximately thirty metres in diameter, so its destruction by quarrying occurred somewhere in the twentieth century, if not more recently. The knoll it occupies commands good views in all directions, which is typical of rath placement; early medieval farmers and landowners favoured elevated ground for both practical and social reasons. There is a slight irony in the setting: a higher knoll about thirty metres to the south-south-west overlooks the site, and on its summit there is a possible house site, meaning the rath may itself have been observed from above by later occupation on the neighbouring rise.

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