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Bivallate rath — a early Christian rath is a defended homestead located at Lisburn in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The monument comprises two concentric earthen banks with external ditches, a common defensive configuration for ringforts of the early Christian period. Such dual-bank systems typically enclosed an area of domestic and agricultural activity, providing protection for a single family or small community during the medieval centuries.
The rath sits upon Palaeogene extrusive rocks comprising mafic lava and tuff, volcanic deposits that underlie much of the Antrim plateau and shape the local landscape. This bedrock foundation would have influenced both the construction technique and the drainage characteristics of the earthwork, with the builders working around the underlying geology to create the defensive banks and ditches.
The monument is protected by the Historic Environment Division under reference 4507 and remains a significant survival of early medieval settlement practice in the region. Such raths are distributed widely across Ireland and represent a distinctive form of rural settlement that persisted from the Iron Age through to the medieval period, reflecting continuity in farming communities and local authority structures across centuries of cultural change.
Bivallate rath is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 4507. View the official record →
Bivallate rath — a early Christian rath is a defended homestead located at Lisburn in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 4507.
Bivallate rath dates from the e.christ. period, and is classified as a rath. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Bivallate rath is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Ni. The official designation reference is 4507.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Giant's grave. megalithic tomb (5.4 km), Earthwork enclosure (5.5 km), Bivallate rath (6.3 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Bivallate rath's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Bivallate rath stands on Unnamed Extrusive Rocks, Palaeogene, bedrock that formed in the Paleogene. The rock here is mafic lava and mafic tuff.