Ringforts of Ireland

Ringforts are small circular fortified settlements, found across northern Europe and above all in Ireland. They were made of earth or stone: an earthen one was marked by a circular bank and ditch, often with a stake wall, and both kinds usually had at least one building inside. Irish has several names for them: ráth (rath) and lios (lis) for the earthen kind, the ráth being the bank and the lios the space within; caiseal (cashel) and cathair (caher) for stone ones; and dún for any stronghold of importance. (Wikipedia, "Ringfort" ↗)

When they were built is debated. Some argue for the Iron Age, others for use running on into the later medieval period; the most widely accepted view puts most of them in the second half of the first millennium AD. Matthew Stout, using radiocarbon and tree-ring dates from 114 sites, placed over half in 540 to 884 AD. The New History of Ireland (2005) says "archaeologists are agreed that the vast bulk of them are the farm enclosures of the well-to-do of early medieval Ireland", though excavations show that not every ringfort was a farmstead. (Wikipedia, "Ringfort" ↗)

Folklore. Tradition held that ringforts were "fairy forts", and people who believed in the fairies would not alter them. In 2011 the financial ruin of Seán Quinn was blamed, by some, on his having moved one. This is a belief people held and still talk about, not a finding of the survey. (Wikipedia, "Fairy fort" ↗) More on it: Irish superstitions: fairy forts, thorn trees and May Eve →

Republic: Sites and Monuments Record classes "Ringfort - rath", "Ringfort - cashel" and "Ringfort - unclassified". Northern Ireland (3,053: 2,902 rath, 151 cashel): NISMR records typed RATH (including "rath & souterrain", "rath & motte" and "rath & fortification") or CASHEL; the NISMR has no "unclassified ringfort" type, so the columns are not like for like.

Open a county for every record: townland, a line quoted from the survey's own description where it has one, the SMR number (linked to the Historic Environment Viewer) and a map link where the record has a position.

• A record is a survey entry, not a promise that something is there. The Sites and Monuments Record lists sites that are known, reported or marked on old maps, including some that have been destroyed, moved, or were never found when inspected. Each record's own description says what the surveyors saw; read it before you set out.
• Some records have no description uploaded yet, and a few have no usable position; they are marked as such.
• Most sites are on private land. Ask before you cross a field, and leave things as you find them: monuments in the Record of Monuments and Places are protected under section 12 of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994 ↗.
• The Sites and Monuments Record covers the Republic only. Northern Ireland's record (the NISMR) is counted here by county from its open data, by matching the record descriptions; it is not listed site by site and its counts are not directly comparable.
• Ringfort records are numerous and many are described only briefly, so these lists give the townland, the type and the record link but no quoted description; open the record for what the surveyors saw. 350 records have no usable position.
• Only the three ringfort classes are counted. Circular sites the survey recorded under another class (such as "Enclosure") are not included, so the true number of ringfort-like sites may be higher.
• Northern Ireland: counted from the NISMR record type, not listed; its rath/cashel split is the NISMR's own and is not directly comparable with the Republic's.

Source: National Monuments Service, Archaeological Survey of Ireland, Sites and Monuments Record, open data via data.gov.ie ↗ (CC BY 4.0); every record links to the Historic Environment Viewer ↗. Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Record (Department for Communities, Historic Environment Division), OpenDataNI ↗.