Longstone Rath () is a

ringfort Ringforts, ring forts or ring fortresses are circular fortified settlements that were mostly built during the Bronze Age up to about the year 1000. They are found in Northern Europe, especially in Ireland. There are also many in South Wales ...

(''rath'') and

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spec ...

located in

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after th ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Location

Longstone Rath is located on a height overlooking the Barna–

Emly Emly or Emlybeg () is a village in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is a civil parish in the historical barony of Clanwilliam. It is also an Ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly. It is situated on the R515 ...

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

. The site was excavated in 1973–76, where 4,000

potsherds This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

, 6 complete vessels, over 400 flint scrapers, cremated bones and

grooved ware Grooved ware is the name given to a pottery style of the British Neolithic. Its manufacturers are sometimes known as the Grooved ware people. Unlike the later Beaker ware, Grooved culture was not an import from the continent but seems to have dev ...

pottery were found. The mound is thought to date from c. AD 1 (mid-

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

), with the rath being added about AD 600. 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 Food vessels are an Early Bronze Age, c. 2400-1500 BC (Needham 1996), pottery type. It is not known what food vessels were used for and they only received their name as antiquarians decided they were not beakers (regarded as drinking-vessels) and ...

and

Urn An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape or ...

peoples, indicating that the site was a "halting site" for many thousands of years before the longstone and rath were made.''Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland'', Volume IV (1986), page 111.
/ref>

References

{{reflist National monuments in County Tipperary