What is recorded here

Rath Nua is a graveyard enclosure in County Kildare where a new name appeared on maps after the north part became enclosed, while the south part kept a broken bank and a hidden circular shadow. The place may have worn a ringfort shape beneath Christian use, suggesting that burial and memory followed an older defensive line. Its boundary is no longer a sharp trap but a living edge, marking the point where human time stopped pretending to be endless.

A large unenclosed, sub-rectangular graveyard (KD028-052002-) is depicted by a broken line (c. 70m NNW-SSE; c. 50m ENE-SSW) on the 1st ed. (1838) of the OS 6-inch map. The N portion is shown to have been enclosed on the current ed. (1939-40) of the map, which also shows the S portion partially enclosed by a bank and named ‘Rath Nua’ (KD028-052001-). Described in 1972 as part of a roughly circular ringfort (diam. 29m) defined by a bank and wide fosse containing traces of a possible church (KD028-052003-). No visible surface trace of the enclosure or possible church survived in 1986 (SMR file), however, an aerial photograph (GB89.AF.29) shows the cropmark of a broad fosse defining a sub-circular area projecting S from the modern graveyard wall. A low earthen bank (H 0.6m; Wth 2.4m) abuts the outer face of the graveyard wall at SE and may be the remains of the enclosing bank noted in 1972. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 22 February 2013

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