A COMMON archaeological feature of the countryside is the ringfort.
In our part of Co. Limerick ringforts are called moats. In some places they are known as 'lisses', from 'lios', the Irish word for such a construction. There is a very large triple-ringed ringfort near Bruree, and it is called Lisoleum, a name deriving from Lios Ollium, the ringfort of Ollium. Ollium is believed to be a corruption of Oilioll Ollum, the name of a reputed second century king of Munster.
A new term has been introduced in recent times by Dúchas (the State body having care of national monuments) to describe ringforts, moats, lisses, call them what you will. It is 'enclosure', I will come to the significance of this term later.
There was, and still is, a moat near our home. We loved to play there when we were young. It was a lovely green mound, with a wide trench, that held water in winter, surrounding it about three-quarters of the way round. Old people used sometimes warn us not to be playing there, or the 'joeys' (pronounced 'joe-ees') would get us. 'Joeys' was a corruption of 'sióga', the Irish for fairies.
There was a whitethorn bush on the edge of the moal, and on one occasion we brought some blossoms from the bush home with us. We were promptly sent back to the moat with them. People, though they might not believe in fairies, were careful not to interfere in any way with moats, as they had a feeling that there was something strange, or preternatural, about them, and that harm would come to people who damaged them or cut a bush on them. While this belief existed nobody would tamper with them. Another deterrent was that when farmers held their lands as tenants of landlords they dare not interfere with any physical feature on the lands.
But as farmers bought out their holdings from the landlords, and as old beliefs died, but especially when JCBs and excavation machinery became common, things changed. At the beginning of the 1900s, it is estimated that some 40,000 ringforts still survived in Ireland. Recent surveys in certain parts of the country show that up to 50% of them have been destroyed, bulldozed out of existence. This is an appalling destruction of a very valuable part of the nation's archaeological heritage. Ringforts, being earthen constructions, are, of course, very vulnerable. Michael Hartnett, the West Limerick poet, had a lovely description for those circular constructions from ancient times. In one of his poems he called them "Fáinní pósta na hÉireann", the wedding rings of Ireland.
The ages of ringforts vary considerably. The oldest known ringfort in the country is one at Cush, near Kilfinane, which may date as early as 500B.C. Several are thought to be about 2000 years old. But the majority are believed to have been constructed in early Christian times. Despite the description 'fort' in the word ringfort, the great bulk of these structures had no real military significance, but rather were 'enclosures' (the description used by Dúchas) in which early farmsteads were located. Houses were built within the forts, in nearly all cases of wood, for the country was densely forested then. As one would expect, no traces of these wooden houses now remain, above ground at any rate. But where excavation has been carried out, the post holes that held the wooden posts that supported the roofs of the houses can be identified.
Most ringforts, as the name implies, are circular, or roughly circular, in shape, others are oval; a few are rectangular with rounded corners. In constructing a ringfort, the material obtained by digging the trench was piled up on the edge of the fort to form a high bank. At one end of the fort was the entrance, a rather narrow passage which had been left undug when the trench, or fosse, was being dug. The entrance to the fort was normally protected by a gate. Sometimes the entrance was protected by an elaborate system of gates. A site excavated at Garranes, Co. Cork was found to have these, or possibly low gates.
Ringfots vary greatly in size. Some may be only 50 or 60 feet in diameter, others as much as 200 feet. In the more elaborately defended examples, the defences, that is, the surrounding banks and trenches, take up a much greater area than that of the circular inner enclosure. For example, a triple-ramparted fort may have an external diameter of 400 feet, while the inner space may be only 150 feet in diameter. These latter elaborately defended ringforts would have been the abodes of important personages such as the kings of the local tuatha, or petty kingdoms. The more common ringforts, with just one trench around them, would have held the abodes of farmers.
On the edge of the family ringfort, overlooking the single trench, were raised banks, the top of which were probably strengthened by the erection of wooden palisades, that is a strong fence made of stakes driven into the ground. These provided protection from predators, such as wolves, for the cattle, which would have been brought into the ringfort at night.
Here I might quote from an interesting leaflet produced by the Cork Archaeological Survey, UCC. Referring to ringforts, it says "As well as farming-related activities like corn grinding and animal husbandry, ringforts were also home to a wide variety of craft industries, including spinning, weaving, metal and glass working. Dwellings and outoffices were constructed of timber, wattle, mud or sods. These structures usually leave no trace above ground today, although excavation can trace their remains by revealing features like postholes, stakeholes and sunken hearths". So those now grass-grown and bush-grown ringforts, or moats, were scenes of great activity when occupied by farming families more than a thousand years ago. They are structures that deserve to be preserved, not destroyed.
There are two Irish words for ringforts, 'lios' and 'ráth', and they will be found in several of our placemanes. Some 30 Limerick townland names begin with 'Lis' or 'Liss', the anglicised form of 'Lios'.
Among these townlands are Lisbane (Lios Bán the white ringfort), Lisnafulla (Lios na Fola, the ringfort of blood), Lissnalanniv (Lios na Leanbh, the ringfort of the children), Lissanaroor (Lios an Arbhair, the ringfort of the corn) Lissard (Lios Ard, the high ringfort). Some 20 Limerick townlands begin with the word 'Rath', Rathanny (Ráth Áine, Áine, Áine's ringfort). Rathcahill (Ráth Chathail, Cathal's ringfort), Rathmore (Ráth Mór, the big ringfort), Rathnaneane (Ráth na nÉan, the ringfort of the birds), etc.
To see the density of these 'Lios' and 'Rath' (as well, of course, as the 'Baile' and the 'Cill' and the 'Cnoc', etc.) placenames in Co. Limerick one should have a look at Dr Patrick J. O'Connor's delightfully informative book, "Atlas of Irish Placenames", published last year.
Related article: Limerick Placenames
