House - indeterminate date, Imileá An Bhóthair, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

House

House – indeterminate date, Imileá An Bhóthair, Co. Kerry

Within the enclosure of a bivallate rath on low-lying ground south of Smerwick Harbour, on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, there may once have been a house.

The qualification matters: the structure recorded at the centre of this earthwork is listed as a possible house site, its date indeterminate, its nature unresolved. That uncertainty is itself part of what makes the site worth pausing over.

A bivallate rath is a roughly circular earthen enclosure defined by two concentric banks and ditches, a form of enclosed farmstead associated broadly with early medieval Ireland, though examples can be difficult to date precisely without excavation. The rath at Imileá An Bhóthair sits in the low ground near Smerwick Harbour, a stretch of coastline on the far western tip of the Corca Dhuibhne, or Dingle, peninsula. Within its doubled earthen rings, the remains at the centre were noted as a possible habitation site by J. Cuppage in the 1986 archaeological survey of the Dingle Peninsula, a detailed study of the area's exceptionally dense prehistoric and early historic landscape. Whether what survives at the centre once constituted a dwelling, or something else entirely, remains an open question. The monument has been protected under a preservation order dating to 1939, one of the earlier such designations in the state.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of House – indeterminate date, Imileá An Bhóthair, Co. Kerry. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement