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Rath — a e.christ. rath is an early Christian earthwork monument located in Lisburn, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The site is protected by the Historic Environment Division under reference number 7127. Raths of this period were the defensive homesteads of prosperous farming families, typically comprising a circular or oval enclosure surrounded by a substantial earthen bank with an outer ditch. They served as both domestic and symbolic statements of status within early Christian Irish society.
The monument sits upon bedrock of the Gala Group, a Telychian wacke formation that would have provided a relatively firm foundation for the earthwork's construction. This geological base lies beneath the Lisburn area's glacial deposits and would have influenced both the drainage characteristics of the rath and the ease with which the enclosing bank could be constructed. The underlying stone geology is typical of the Southern Uplands geology that extends across this part of County Antrim.
The early Christian period in Ireland, spanning roughly the fifth to twelfth centuries, saw the proliferation of such domestic raths throughout the island. Though many have been damaged or levelled by agricultural activity over the centuries, surviving examples like this one at Lisburn preserve important evidence of settlement patterns, land use, and social organisation during this formative phase of Irish Christian history.
Rath is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 7127. View the official record →
Rath — a e.christ. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 7127.
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 7127.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Cashel (3.1 km), Counterscarp rath (3.2 km), Rath (4.7 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of 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.
Rath stands on Gala Group, bedrock that formed in the Telychian. The rock here is wacke.