Longstone Rath

Longstone Rath
Ráth na Cloiche Fada
	Longstone viewed in situ.
	Shown within Ireland
Location	Longstone, Cullen, County Tipperary, Ireland
Region	Munster
Coordinates	52.506051°N 8.297753°W
Area	2,400 m2 (0.6 acre)
Diameter	55 m (60 yd)
History
Material	earth, limestone
Founded	1 AD
Periods	Iron Age
Site notes
Excavation dates	1973–76
Designation	National Monument

Longstone Rath (Irish: Ráth na Cloiche Fada) is a ringfort (rath) and National Monument located in County Tipperary, Ireland.

Location

Longstone Rath is located on a height overlooking the Barna–Emly road, 1.6 km (1 mile) west-southwest of Cullen.

History and archaeology

The longstone, a lump of limestone about 2.3 m (7′ 7″) in height, is located on a mound within a bivallate ringfort.[1] The site was excavated in 1973–76, where 4,000 potsherds, 6 complete vessels, over 400 flint scrapers, cremated bones and grooved ware pottery were found. The mound is thought to date from c. AD 1 (mid-Iron Age), with the rath being added about AD 600.[2][3][4] According to Prof. Peter Danaher, Carrowkeel-style bowls from the complex site at Longstone seem to indicate a transitory camp of passage-tomb folk, and the hilltop was also used by Beaker, Food Vessel and Urn peoples, indicating that the site was a "halting site" for many thousands of years before the longstone and rath were made.[5]

References

MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS OF IRELAND.COM: Longstone
"Longstone" on Megalithomania
"Unpublished Excavations in the Republic of Ireland 1930-1997" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
Seventy-eighth annual report of the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland, with appendices, 1909-10. p. 51. Retrieved 10 October 2021 – via Documenting Ireland: Parliament, People and Migration.
Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland, Volume IV (1986), page 111.

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[1] MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS OF IRELAND.COM: Longstone

[2] "Longstone" on Megalithomania

[3] "Unpublished Excavations in the Republic of Ireland 1930-1997" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2015.

[4] Seventy-eighth annual report of the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland, with appendices, 1909-10. p. 51. Retrieved 10 October 2021 – via Documenting Ireland: Parliament, People and Migration.

[5] Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland, Volume IV (1986), page 111.