The rath at Ballyhimikin in County Cork went the other way. According to local information, it was levelled around 1979, absorbed into the tillage field it had occupied for centuries on an east-facing slope. What remains is essentially a ghost: a circular area roughly 31 metres across, with a low earthen bank still tracing the line from north-northeast to southeast where it was incorporated into the field fence system, and a shallow external fosse that survives in places alongside a slight scarp.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths when earthen, were the most common settlement form in early medieval Ireland, typically enclosing a farmstead with one or more banks and ditches. They were built and occupied roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, though many remained in use or were adapted long after. The Ballyhimikin example had its bank stone-faced in parts, a detail that suggests some investment in its construction beyond a simple earthen throw-up. That stonework would have reinforced the outer face of the bank, giving it both structural stability and a more deliberate appearance. The shallow external fosse, a ditch running outside the bank, is a standard feature, intended less as a serious defensive barrier and more as a way of defining the enclosed space and marking its social significance.