ROADS AND ROUTESexcavations at Deer Park Farms, County Antrim, where
arathwas found to enclose a group of five contem-
porary wicker houses dating to approximately 700 C.E.
The layout of this farmstead, the design of its houses,
and the artifacts recovered are considered consistent
with the material attributes of lower grade ringfort
occupants noted in the seventh-century Irish law tract
calledCrith Gabhlach. Typical early medieval finds
from ringforts include bronze, iron, and bone pins;
glass beads; crude handmade pottery called souterrain
ware; and wheel-thrown pottery termed E ware. Cattle
bones are also particularly numerous, showing the
dominance of cattle meat in the diet of ringfort inhab-
itants and an emphasis on dairying.
Stout’s seminal study of ringforts proposes that the
majority were constructed in a three hundred-year
period from the beginning of the seventh century to
the end of the ninth century C.E. This conclusion is
based on the predominantly early medieval radiocar-
bon and tree-ring dates obtained from just forty-seven
excavated ringforts. At present there is insufficient
evidence from archaeological excavations to support
any claim that ringforts continued to be constructed
after 1200. However, structural features in the fabric
of some upstanding stone forts, significant informa-
tion derived from a few excavations, depictions of
ringforts as “living sites” on Tudor maps of the late
sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and histor-
ical references and analysis of distribution patterns
combine to suggest that ringfort settlement did not
become obsolete at the end of the early medieval
period. The well-known map picture of Tulach Óg in
Tyrone drawn by Richard Bartlett in 1602 shows the
dwelling of the Uí Ágáin family as a single-banked
ringfort containing a large house and a cabin. As late
as 1619, the Lindsey family who had received the
lands at Tulach Óg during the Plantation of Ulster
occupied the ringfort.
Some ringforts appear to have enjoyed a measure
ofcontinuity of use from the early into the later medi-
eval period. Excavations by Jope at the rathof Bally-
macash, County Antrim, revealed that the ringfort had
been built in two phases. A radiocarbon date of
1020–1250 was obtained from the remains of an oak
post positioned in the clay floor of one of three houses
associated with the second phase of occupation of the
ringfort, and stratified shards of everted-rim ware dat-
ing to the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century
were found in association with another of the three
houses. Excavations by Raftery at Rathgall, County
Wicklow, have proved that the caisealenjoyed sub-
stantial occupation in the late thirteenth and four-
teenth century, probably as the caputof the Gaelic
sept of Uí Bhróin. Over two thousand shards of medi-
eval pottery including locally produced glazed ware
and Leinster cooking ware were found within the
caisealin association with coins of late thirteenth-
and fourteenth-century date.
Some of the well-preserved stone forts of the Bur-
ren, County Clare, contain structural features indica-
tive of modification and occupation by leading Gaelic
families in the later medieval period. Cathair Mhór and
Cathair Mhic Neachtain both retain the remains of late
medieval two-story gate-tower entrances. Within
Cathair Mhór there is a large masonry dwelling with
rounded quoins and a stout batter of the same period.
Cathair Mhic Neachtain, which was the residence of
the Uí Dhubhdábhoireann legal family, contains the
foundations of several buildings, among them a large
dwelling and a kitchen house, described in a seven-
teenth-century document. Stone forts occupied in the
later medieval period served much the same purpose
as the bawn wall of tower housesthey afforded a
measure of defense and defined a courtyard in which
domestic buildings were situated.
The longevity of ringforts and the modifications
made to them over time are not yet fully appreciated
and are likely to dominate future scholarly investiga-
tions of this most commonplace, versatile, and com-
plex of Irish medieval monuments.
ELIZABETH FITZPATRICKReferences and Further Reading
Edwards, Nancy. The Archaeology of Early Medieval Ireland.
London: Batsford, 1990.
O’Conor, Kieran D. The Archaeology of Medieval Rural Settle-
ment in Ireland. Dublin: Discovery Programmme/Royal
Irish Academy, 1998.
Stout, Matthew. The Irish Ringfort. Dublin: Four Courts Press,
1997.ROADS AND ROUTES
Irish place names preserve a variety of words for roads
of different status, construction, and quality. Among
these are bóthar(a cattle track), bealach(a passage,
gap, or road), and tóchar (a causeway), which was usu-
ally of timber. The word casánis used of a path, while
ceisspecifically refers to a path made of wattles. The
termslighe is given to a high road or a more significant
national route. Apart from roads, major rivers such as
the Shannon, the Erne, the Liffey, the Barrow, and
the Boyne were important highways in early medieval
Ireland and not surprisingly they attracted both eccle-
siastical and secular settlements such as the monas-
tery of Clonmacnoise on the River Shannon and St.
Mullins on the Barrow, which was both a monastic
site and an Anglo-Norman stronghold during the
twelfth century. The Norse Vikings made particularly
good use of Ireland’s navigable rivers during their