A surprising number of raths have survived in the Prosperous area indicating settlement of the place in early Christian times. The residents of Rath View have the pleasure of one of these raths forming the centre-piece of their housing development.
Despite living in this village for some ten years it was only recently while on Geocaching.com’s ESRI WorldImagery map that I noticed the unusual circle. I have only ever experienced raths in fields before, never on the green.
What is a Rath?
Ringforts are circular fortified settlements that were mostly built during the Early Middle Ages up to about the year 1000. They are found in Northern Europe, especially in Ireland. Ringforts come in many sizes and may be made of stone or earth. Earthen ringforts would have been marked by a circular rampart (a bank and ditch), often with a stakewall. Both stone and earthen ringforts would generally have had at least one building inside.
In Irish language sources they are known by a number of names: ráth (anglicised rath), lios (anglicised lis), caiseal (anglicised cashel), cathair (anglicised caher or cahir) and dún (anglicised dun or doon). The ráth and lios was an earthen ringfort; the ráth being the enclosing bank and the lios being the open space within. The caiseal and cathair was a stone ringfort. The term dún was usually used for any stronghold of importance, which may or may not be ring-shaped.
In Ireland, over 40,000 sites have been identified as ringforts and it is thought that at least 50,000 ringforts existed on the island. They are common throughout the country, with an average density of just over one ringfort within any area of 2 km². It is likely that many have been destroyed by farming and urbanisation. The materials used to construct ringforts frequently disintegrated over time. Tradition associated their circular remains with fairies and leprechauns, and they were called fairy forts.
Function
In agriculture: It has traditionally been understood that the ringfort was a dispersed farmstead, the home of a free man and his family and the centre of a mixed agricultural economy to a large extent dominated by cattle. Pollen studies and other evidence have greatly modified the traditional view of the dominance of livestock making it clear that cereal production was also important.
In industry: Other sites have provided evidence that ringforts have had a more diverse and significant role in the economy. In Garannes, County Cork, no evidence for habitation or settlement was found in the ringfort but a great deal of evidence was provided to suggest that the site had an industrial nature. The finds of continental pottery at the site, suggests that the site was trading with the continent.
In defence: That a ringfort is a defensive feature would appear to be obvious both from the name with the defensive implications that fort implies. Therefore, in a cattle-dominated society it is generally argued that the purpose of the ringfort was to provide protection to a small community and their livestock during a 'hit and run' raid for cattle, and that in a particular area one ringfort would be in the sight of at least one other neighbouring ringfort so that if one ringfort were attacked, relief would possibly come from a neighbouring one.
In aristocracy: The importance and role of the banks can signifying nobility, kingship and authority. The more elaborate the ringfort, usually in the forms of multiple outlying banks, the higher the status of the occupant. It would seem that the promotion of one's status was probably the principal aim behind the construction of a ringfort.
In sport: Today, the children of this housing estate play on a circular football pitch!