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Farrel's Fort is a multivallate rath situated near Lisburn in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The monument comprises multiple concentric earthen banks and ditches, a defensive arrangement characteristic of early Christian raths built between the fifth and eighth centuries. These circular or oval enclosures served as the fortified residences of local lords and their households, combining domestic and defensive functions within their ramparts.
The fort is constructed upon bedrock of the Gala Group wacke, a sandstone formation laid down during the Telychian period of the Ordovician. This solid geological foundation would have provided a stable base for the substantial earthworks, though the underlying stone would have presented considerable challenges for the construction of ditches and the extraction of material for the ramparts that characterise the site.
The monument is protected under Historic Environment Division reference 6457, ensuring its preservation as an important record of early medieval settlement and social hierarchy in the Lisburn area. Multivallate raths of this type represent one of the most common forms of defended settlement from the period, and their distribution across the Irish landscape reflects patterns of territorial organisation and lordship that persisted into the medieval period.
Farrel's fort. multivallate rath is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 6457. View the official record →
Farrel's Fort is a multivallate rath situated near Lisburn in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 6457.
Farrel's fort. multivallate 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.
Farrel's fort. multivallate 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 6457.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Drumbo round tower, drumboo. round tower & site of medieval church & pre-norman monastery (1.7 km), Queen's fort. bivallate rath (3.2 km), The court. plantation house & bawn (3.9 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Farrel's fort. multivallate 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.
Farrel's fort. multivallate rath stands on Gala Group, bedrock that formed in the Telychian. The rock here is wacke.