Mound, Knockane, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Mound, Knockane, Co. Kerry

In the corner of a field on rising ground in Knockane, County Kerry, there is a rath with two small attendant mounds sitting just beyond its outer bank.

That pairing is what makes the site quietly unusual. A rath, broadly speaking, is a ringfort, an enclosed circular area defined by earthen banks that was typically used as a farmstead during the early medieval period in Ireland. This one is bivallate, meaning it has two concentric enclosing banks rather than one, which generally indicates a site of some status. What is less easily explained is the relationship between the main enclosure and those two additional mounds lying immediately to the north.

The inner area of the rath is sub-circular, bounded by a well-defined earthen bank, and the whole site measures roughly 38 metres north to south and 37 metres east to west. Just beyond the outer bank, to the north, sits a circular mound measuring 1.8 metres across and 0.6 metres high. A further 2.6 metres beyond that is a second, slightly smaller mound, 1.4 metres in diameter and 0.4 metres high. Both are considered likely to be connected to the rath, though precisely how is not certain. They might represent burial features, subsidiary structures, or something else entirely that time and undisturbed soil have not yet clarified. The site was documented in the North Kerry Archaeological Survey, compiled by C. Toal and published in 1995, which remains one of the more thorough inventories of early field monuments in this part of Munster. The elevated position of the rath, commanding clear views in all directions, would have made it a conspicuous and defensible presence in the landscape, as was typical of such enclosures when they were in active use.

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