At Rearour in County Cork, a crossing point has been formally recorded as an archaeological monument, which places it in the same category of protected heritage as ring forts, standing stones, and burial cairns. That a shallow river crossing earns that designation says something about how seriously such features are now regarded: fords were not incidental conveniences but fixed points in the organisation of territory, movement, and sometimes conflict, often remaining in use for centuries or even millennia before bridges made them redundant.