What is recorded here

Three earthen banks and two fosses still circle a level grass yard on the Rathmeel rise, marking a fort old enough to belong before written memory. Hawthorn and bramble ring the banks, a farmyard breathes at the northwest edge, and another rath waits two hundred metres north, visible across the pasture. The fort does not need fairy names to feel removed from ordinary time; it stands as a threshold, built by hands now lost, still holding its shape against rain, plough and forgetting.

Located on rise in undulating pasture. An area of poorly drained ground lies to NE-E. A farmyard lies immediately to NW. This rath is enclosed by three banks with intervening fosses. It consists of a slightly raised circular area (37.6m E-W; 39.6m N-S) defined by an earthen bank (Wth 5.3m; int. H 0.4m; ext. H 2.9m), and enclosed by a flat-bottomed fosse (Wth 4m) with external bank (Wth 6.9m; int. H 1.8m; ext. H 1.6m). Remnants of the second fosse (Wth 2.4m) with its outer bank (Wth 3.5m; int. H 0.4m; ext. H 1.2m) survive in an arc at SW−NW, but have been levelled elsewhere. A poorly defined gap (Wth 1.4m) in the innermost bank at the E may indicate the site of the original entrance. The interior is level. Two areas of surface collapse in the W half of the interior mark the location a Man-made underground passage (MA030-041001-) of dry-stone construction. A slight, narrow stony rise (Wth 0.6-0.8m) traverses the W half of the interior on a roughly N-S axis, probably the remains of a field fence. An accumulation of field clearance stones tops the innermost bank. At SE−SW the second bank is incorporated into a later field fence, and has been faced with stone in parts. The banks are ringed with hawthorn and brambles. At NW-N a silage pit truncates the outer banks and fosse. There is another multivallate rath (MA030-043----) 200m to N, and a standing stone (MA030-044----) c. 350m to ESE, both visible from this rath. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 16 April 2018

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