Creativity, History and Technology

History

It seems likely that the bulges result from a deliberate attempt on the part of the builders to accommodate earlier monuments, that the rampart had to deviate to enclose earlier sites might suggest poor forward planning, but it may be that the deviations were intended to visibly proclaim the inclusion of these monuments by exaggerating the effect of their presence on the later enclosure.

A section through the internal ditch was excavated by S P Ó Ríordáin in the 1950s and showed it to be a deep, V-shaped fosse dug to a depth of 3m into the bedrock; it had a deep vertical-sided palisade trench immediately inside.

There are three possible entrances, one on the northwest, another on the east and a geophysical survey has revealed a third on the south. The eastern entrance is just a gap in the very degraded rampart at this point, but it seems to be aligned with the entrance to a ringfort known as Teach Chormaic.

This feature may be a continuation of the palisade trench identified by Ó Ríordáin, but there is no corresponding gap in the internal ditch. The same is true of the ditch at the northwest entrance, where geophysical survey has also failed to record a gap in the fosse even though there are positive magnetic traces of the possible palisade trench. Two conjoined earthworks are the most visible monuments in Ráith na Rí. The circular earthwork now called Teach Chormac (Cormac's House: the supposed dwelling of the heroic king Cormac Mac Airt), is a bi-vallate ringfort;

The enclosed are is flat with a low sub-rectangular mound (traces of a house?). Just off centre and is surrounded by two earthen banks with an intervening ditch. A similar conjoined earthwork carnfree near Rath Croghan. A pillar stone of Newry granite on the summit of the Forradh stands 1.55m high and is said to have been originally located near the 'Mound of the Hostages' to the north.

For this reason it is today believed to be the Lia Fáil, the 'stone of destiny:' a stone, which uttered a cry at the inauguration of a legitimate king of Tara.  The Medieval name Dumha na nGiall, 'the Mound of the Hostages,' is applied to a large circular mound, 21m in diameter and 3.5m high, at the northern end of Ráith na Rí.

Excavations in 1955-1956 and 1959 have shown that it is an early prehistoric monument; a small undifferentiated passage tomb, possibly built around 3000 BC, was covered by a cairn, which was later enveloped in a mantle of earth containing numerous later burials of the late third and early second millennia BC. Part of what may have been a trench for a timber palisade was found beneath this monument and is the earliest identified feature on the hill. Conceivably part of a later 4th millennium BC enclosure, this ditch has produced a radiocarbon date of 3355-2465 BC.

The overall diameter is 73m and the entrance, with causeway through the ditch is on the northwest.