What is recorded here

Conjoined raths in Countenan, County Cavan, wear earth and memory like skin. The northern oval stretches thirty-eight metres toward the sky while the southern circle holds thirty under foot, both broken open where people once entered without asking permission. Trees have since planted themselves inside the forts, dragging human making back into fantasy. That is not loss. It is transformation, the kind that proves life does not obey the boundaries we draw around it.

Conjoined raths encircled by a modern field boundary and separated by a fosse. Both raths comprise raised areas enclosed by a bank and fosse. Rath at N is oval in plan (int. dims. 38.5m NE-SW; 29m NW-SE). Break in bank at N probably marks original entrance. Just outside of the entrance the level of the fosse drops accutely from W down to E. The S rath is circular in plan (int. diam. 29.8m). Bank barely discernible over the interior throughout most of its course. Fosse is only identifiable from SE-S-SW and at NE. Wide break in bank at WSW with no visible remains of accompanying causeway probably represents original entrance. Both raths have been planted with trees. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1995). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 22 December 2008

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