That is, in a sense, precisely what makes it worth knowing about. Somewhere beneath or within the present landscape of mid Cork lies what was once a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, a type of enclosed farmstead typically built during the early medieval period, between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands of these circular earthwork enclosures once dotted the Irish countryside, defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches and serving as the domestic settlements of farming families. This one has been levelled entirely, leaving no visible surface trace whatsoever.