The one at Rathealy, in County Kilkenny, does the opposite. It sits on the floor of a small north-south river valley, in waterlogged pasture, with a stream running past its north-eastern side. That choice of location, unusual for this type of monument, is one of the first things that makes it worth a closer look.

A ringfort, or rath, is an enclosed farmstead typical of early medieval Ireland, roughly the fifth to twelfth centuries, defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches surrounding a circular interior where a family would have lived and kept livestock. The Rathealy example is a fairly complete specimen. The interior measures thirty metres in diameter, enclosed by a bank that stands about 1.5 metres on its outer face, followed by a fosse, which is a defensive ditch, two metres wide and one metre deep, and then a lower outer bank beyond that. There are two entrances, one facing east and one to the north-west, each cutting through both the inner and outer banks at slightly different widths. What makes the interior particularly interesting is a slightly raised rectangular platform in its eastern quadrant, measuring ten metres north to south and seven metres east to west. Platforms of this kind are sometimes associated with the site of a former structure, though their precise function varies from site to site. The valley setting also means the monument benefits from reasonable views along the valley floor, which may have influenced its placement even without the usual high ground.