Ringfort (Rath), Commeen, Co. Cork
Co. Cork |
Ringforts
Some places earn their place in the archaeological record not through what survives but through what has vanished entirely.
Near Shibone Hill, at the western edge of the Commeen townland in County Cork, there is nothing to see. No earthwork, no raised bank, no circular hollow in the grass. And yet the record exists: a lios, the Irish term for a ringfort, once stood here, roughly 30 metres across.
Ringforts, circular enclosures typically defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches, are among the most common archaeological monument types in Ireland, with tens of thousands recorded across the island. Most date to the early medieval period, roughly the fifth to twelfth centuries, and functioned as enclosed farmsteads for individual family groups. The one at Commeen was modest by any measure, 30 metres in diameter placing it at the smaller end of the scale. What is known comes from a single source: a personal communication from someone recorded only as S. O'Mahony, who noted the former presence of a lios at this location. No excavation is mentioned, no date of destruction, no account of how or when the earthwork disappeared. It simply no longer leaves any visible surface trace.
