Ringfort (Rath), Lisduff, Co. Mayo
Co. Mayo |
Ringforts
What sets this ringfort apart from many of its kind is the sheer solidity of the wall that still encloses it.
Rising to 2.4 metres in height and more than two metres wide, the stone construction along the southern and eastern arc is less a boundary marker than a serious defensive barrier, the kind of thing that took considerable communal effort and intention to raise. Ringforts, known in Irish as raths when built primarily of earthen banks, were the most common form of enclosed farmstead in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from roughly the sixth to the twelfth century. Most housed a single family and their livestock. This one, sitting in undulating pasture roughly 300 metres east of Lisduff, carries its walls with unusual presence.
The enclosure is oval rather than strictly circular, measuring 31.5 metres north to south and 38 metres east to west. The substantial stone wall runs from the south-east around to the north-east, while the remaining arc to the south-east is defined by a lower bank of earth and stone, only 0.3 metres high, suggesting either a different phase of construction or differential survival over time. Inside the enclosure, a small circular structure of earth and stone, roughly 4.4 metres in diameter and barely 0.2 metres high, survives as a faint but legible outline, possibly the remains of a subsidiary building or storage feature. To the north and east, an associated field system extends the picture outward, hinting at the organised agricultural landscape that once surrounded this homestead. The site was documented as part of a survey of the Ballinrobe district compiled by D. Lavelle in 1994, covering the area around Lough Mask and Lough Carra in County Mayo.