lissue rath

It is slightly dished in the centre, and the surrounding bank has largely disappeared. this enclosure was preceded by an earlier round structure (built perhaps around A.D. 850) whose inhabitants had used sophisticated domestic wooden vessels. Little more than the ditch of this earlier rath remained when excavations on the site in 1946-47 revealed that the earlier rath had been partially demolished when the existing earthen rath was constructed around A.D. 1000. Six concentric rings of oak posts found in the centre of the rath led the excavator to suggest that the whole rath had once been roofed over as a single, vast round room 120ft in diameter and almost 40 feet high, which probably served as the living area for a single well-to-do family - judging by the items uncovered, including a rare slate decorated with designs.