The Ringfort at Tonroe

 

 

A Survey of the Royal Site of Cruachain in Connacht Published by the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Vol. 117 (1987), shows that fifteen instances of monuments of the ringfort class were destroyed in Roscommon pre 1973 and many more have been destroyed since. This survey identified and documented for the first time a ringfort at Tonroe. This ringfort has an eastern entrance and a Souterrain in the western sector. Tonroe has a diameter of 108.5 meters and a ditch of 7-9 meters deep. All the ringforts in the area have been dated to the late prehistoric age. This website was developed to have a permanent pictorial record of the site at Tonroe.

 

Work is currently ongoing to preserve the Souterrain on the site. A Souterrain is a name given by archaeologists to a type of underground structure associated mainly with the Atlantic Iron Age (from French 'sous terrain', meaning 'under-ground'. Souterrains are underground galleries and, in their early stages, were always associated with a settlement. The galleries were dug out and then lined with stone slabs or wood before being reburied. In cases where they were cut into rock this was not always necessary. They do not appear to have been used for burial or ritual purposes and it has been suggested that they were food stores or hiding places during times of strife, although some of them would have had very obvious entrances

 

 

 

            BE ADVISED THIS SITE IS NOT YET OPEN TO THE PUBLIC BY APPOINTMENT OR NOT