Lisparkatober, Knocknamucklagh, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Ringforts

Lisparkatober, Knocknamucklagh, Co. Kerry

On a south-west-facing slope in the townland of Knocknamucklagh, an ancient circular enclosure sits quietly swallowed by furze.

The furze, or gorse, is described as impenetrable, which is perhaps the most honest thing that can be said about the site's current condition: this is a rath that has, for now, reclaimed its own privacy.

The enclosure measures roughly 42 metres north to south and 40 metres east to west, making it a substantial example of a rath, the type of circular earthwork that served as a farmstead or defended settlement during the early medieval period in Ireland, typically between the fifth and twelfth centuries. A rath of this kind was usually defined by a raised earthen bank, sometimes topped with a timber palisade, and a fosse, meaning a surrounding ditch, dug to reinforce the boundary. Here, the fosse is positioned along the south to south-east arc, and a causeway entrance survives at the south-east, the gap across the ditch that would once have marked the formal threshold between the everyday world outside and the protected space within. The interior ground tilts downward toward the south-west, following the natural lie of the slope, and the whole structure sits about 75 metres north-east of the Kilnanare stream.

The furze that now fills the interior is not simply an inconvenience. Dense gorse can, in its way, preserve what lies beneath it from disturbance, keeping the earthworks largely intact even as it makes direct inspection impossible. Visitors approaching across the surrounding pasture can trace the profile of the bank from the outside, and the causeway entrance at the south-east remains a legible feature of the landscape, but the interior is, for the moment, the exclusive territory of the thorns.

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Pete F
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