Ringfort (Rath), Clochán Na Nuagh, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Ringforts
On a low ridge above Ballinskelligs Bay in County Kerry, there is a ringfort that has been gradually losing its outline for centuries, and more recently by human hand.
A univallate rath, meaning an enclosure defined by a single surrounding bank, this one once formed an oval roughly 18.5 metres across north to south and 22.4 metres east to west. Part of the enclosing bank of earth and stone survives to a height of 2.7 metres and a base width of 4.2 metres, running from the north-north-east around to the south-south-west. The rest was removed at some point not long before the site was surveyed, and a laneway now runs along its western edge. What remains is further buried under field clearance debris and large boulders piled against it, giving the impression less of an ancient monument than of a boundary that has gradually absorbed its surroundings.
Despite its battered condition, the interior holds a couple of quietly puzzling features. Against the southern inner face of the bank sit the denuded remains of a rectangular structure, measuring around 6.9 metres by 4.2 metres, whose floor level sits slightly below that of the surrounding enclosure. Nearby, an L-shaped depression cuts through the north-west quadrant, roughly 65 centimetres deep and running in two directions before turning at a right angle, in a pattern consistent with a souterrain, an underground passage or chamber dug into the earth, typically associated with early medieval settlement and used for storage or refuge. A shallow dip around the north-east and southern edges of the enclosure may be the last trace of an external fosse, the defensive ditch that would originally have reinforced the bank from outside. The site sits on the Iveragh Peninsula, a landscape dense with early medieval remains, and was documented by archaeologists Aidan O'Sullivan and Jerry Sheehan in their 1996 survey of South Kerry.