Diameter 55 m (60 yd) Founded 1 AD Excavation dates 1973–76 Region Munster | Material earth, limestone Periods Iron Age Area 2,400 m² | |
Location Longstone, Cullen, County Tipperary, Ireland Designation National monuments of Ireland | ||
Longstone Rath (Irish: Ráth na Cloiche Fada) is a ringfort (rath) and National Monument located in County Tipperary, Ireland.
Contents
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. 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. 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.