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Red Row is a bivallate rath situated near Banbridge in County Down, Northern Ireland. A rath is a small fortified homestead, typically comprising one or more circular or oval enclosures surrounded by earthen banks and external ditches. This example is defined by two concentric defensive boundaries, which would have enclosed a domestic settlement during the Early Christian period, roughly between the 5th and 10th centuries. The monument sits upon bedrock of the Gala Group, formed during the Telychian period, comprising wacke—a type of hardened, fine-grained sedimentary rock that would have influenced both the settlement's location and the construction of its earthworks.
The bivallate design suggests a settlement of some status or a response to particular defensive pressures during its period of occupation. The dual banks and ditches would have served both practical and symbolic functions, marking territorial boundaries and protecting livestock and domestic structures from casual disturbance. Such raths were common across early medieval Ulster and typically supported extended family groups engaged in mixed farming.
Red Row is protected as a scheduled monument by the Historic Environment Division of the Department for Communities, registered under reference 7359. This designation recognizes its significance as evidence of Early Christian settlement patterns and land use in the Banbridge area.
Red row. bivallate rath is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 7359. View the official record →
Red Row is a bivallate rath situated near Banbridge in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 7359.
Red row. 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.
Red row. 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 7359.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Hillfort (6.9 km), Standing stone (7 km), Crannog (7.4 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Red row. 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.
Red row. bivallate rath stands on Gala Group, bedrock that formed in the Telychian. The rock here is wacke.