What is recorded here

Forty feet wide at the top, sixty feet across at the bottom in places, the great ditch still circles Rathmore though no wall remains to mark it. Men dug it between 660 and 800 AD, lived beside it through centuries of change, then closed it on purpose in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The fairy name came later, when ordinary human layers had faded enough for imagination to move in. What is certain is the scale of the cut, the patience of its making, and the deliberate hand that filled it.

Situated on a slight rise in a fairly level landscape. Archaeological monitoring (07E0922) by D. Shine of trenches for a water pipe encountered human remains on the W side of the N-S road that is W of Rathmolyon graveyard (ME042-020001-) (excavations.ie 2008:960, 961). This warranted an excavation under the same licence along the roadway c. 5m from the graveyard wall but within the confines of the pipe-trench (L 220m; Wth 1.2-1.3m), with some features occurring at depth (up to 3m). The excavation recorded an area of metal-working (ME042-020003-) as well as eight ditches or fosses. Some of the ditches relate to small plots of a settlement (ME042-020004-) but it is very likely that some of those at the N end of the trench are sections of the same curving fosse encircling the W part of the graveyard cut at two points by the pipe trench. This is undoubtedly the rath after which the townland and the parish are named. One of the other ditches (Wth 2m; D 1m) was S of the rath and unconnected with it, producing a C14 date of 380-200 cal. BC (Shine 2009, 11). Beginning at the NW angle of the graveyard, the section recorded a large ditch (Wth of top 6m; D 2m) that has no indication of an accompanying bank but its 19 layers represent silting periods interspersed with slumping from its sides and deliberate closing deposits at the top. This fosse was cut by two later ditches, one of which had disarticulated human bones while the other was roughly parallel with the graveyard wall and may be an earlier version of this boundary. South of the large ditch two pits and some furrows were encountered. Two burials, one with a smoker’s kit dated c. 1640-1660, were recorded further S with a small ditch between them. This ditch was almost obliterated by a larger ditch (Wth of top 2.4m; max. D 1.9m) with 15 fills consisting of silts, including a lengthy primary silting, interspersed with dumped layers. Large quantities of animal bones were recovered from the fosse and some disarticulated human remains from its upper levels. Redeposited natural on the W side together with its dimensions and alignment suggest it is the same ditch that was encountered at the N end of the trench c. 26m distant. The excavation trench cut these features at two points at the W edge of the enclosure and it enables the size and sequence of the enclosures to be calculated. The innermost enclosure (diam. c. 65m) is defined by a large fosse, and radiocarbon dates suggest a construction date of 660-800 cal. AD. From pottery and artefacts in the ditches it continued in use into the thirteenth or fourteenth century when the ditches were deliberately closed. Other ditches are probably re-cuts or could represent an ecclesiastical enclosure which would have encompassed a much greater area (diam. c. 100m), and a fosse (Wth 1.4m; D 0.5m) discovered in a trench of this scheme on the E side of the graveyard could add support to this (Shine 2009a, 11, 13). (Shine 2009) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 26 April, 2021

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