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Rath, located in Castlereagh, County Down, is a prehistoric circular earthwork of Iron Age date. The monument comprises a roughly circular enclosure defined by an external bank and internal ditch, a form characteristic of ringforts that served as defended domestic settlements in early medieval Ireland, though this particular example may derive from an earlier Iron Age period. Such raths functioned as the fortified homesteads of both commoners and minor nobility, containing dwellings and storage facilities within their protective earthwork perimeters. The site represents an important element of the archaeological landscape documenting settlement patterns and social organisation in pre- and proto-historic Ulster.
Rath is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 6530. View the official record →
Rath, located in Castlereagh, County Down, is a prehistoric circular earthwork of Iron Age date. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 6530.
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.
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 6530.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Queen's fort. bivallate rath (2.5 km), Trivallate rath (4.3 km), Rath (4.7 km).
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any address in the UK — drawing on scheduled monument data, Domesday records, Roman heritage, PAS finds and medieval history to reveal the complete story of a landscape.
Research the area around Rath