INTRODUCTION

The ringforts database project has two phases. Phase one, some data from which is presented on the homepage, details the name, location, excavator, date of excavation, and the journal in which results were published, for all excavated Irish ringforts. The output data that is presented on this page covers the period up to and including 1969, some 71 examples in all.

All the work on the Phase 1 Project has been done by Mike Collins, an MA student based in Cambridge, UK. It is planned to complete the records to the present day, add further data such as map coordinates for each site, and additional data from both the Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) and the original excavation reports. This will also be initially presented 'as is' in tabular format, but the underlying database will be made available online by the end of October 2001. This database will be searchable online, and a facility to download the database in MS Access format will also be provided. Until then, we felt it would be worthwhile to present even partial data, both as a taster of what is to come, and to provoke suggestions of fields future versions might usefully contain.

The second phase is more extensive, being a searchable database of key features of all Irish ringforts - both raths and cashels - currently recognised in the SMR. The number of records will be vast - reaching to tens of thousands. This will present problems in terms of online presentation as well as in compiling and validating the data. Validation will include digitally mapping sites by county as the simple visual clue resulting from an error in coordinates is easily spotted in the majority of cases. Testing of data from County Cork, for example, has revealed that the county's SMR includes several ringforts which mapped to locations in counties Clare, Tipperary and Limerick. Where possible, data is also being checked against both original SMR records and published County Archaeological Inventories.

It is planned to present data from several counties online as a searchable database before the end of 2001, and to complete the database by the end of August 2002.

VIEW THE DATABASE

• Click HERE to access the current Phase 1 Project database in tabular form

OTHER ONLINE SERVICES

IRQUAS aim to provide other online services in accordance with our free-access policies. These are constantly being expanded, and the content of each updated regularly. Use the links below to access the homepages for each service.

• Hillfort Features Database: The hillforts project is intended to result in a database which holds a range of almost fifty different features which may (or may not) be found to be significant in better understanding the form and purpose of Irish hillforts, and their place in the landscape of Ireland's bronze age and iron age societies...More
  
  
• Online Documents: Access our rapidly growing collection of online articles, papers and short essays on a wide variety of topics
  
  
• HIPNO Project: Find out about this ground-breaking digital mapping initiative, what it can offer, and how to get involved

Page last updated 04 October 2001