The rath at Affouley in north Kerry does almost the opposite. It has been so thoroughly levelled over time that it is barely perceptible at ground level, a ghostly impression in low-lying land rather than anything you would confidently call a monument.

A rath is an early medieval enclosure, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century, formed by an earthen bank and a surrounding ditch, or fosse, used as a defended farmstead or a marker of status in the landscape. The Affouley example is univallate, meaning it has a single bank and ditch rather than the multiple concentric rings seen at more elaborate sites. When surveyed and recorded by C. Toal for the North Kerry Archaeological Survey, published in 1995, the internal diameter measured approximately 27 metres north to south and 26 metres east to west, which is a fairly typical size for a rath of this type. The enclosing bank, originally the defining feature of the site, now rises to just half a metre, and is between eight and nine metres wide at the base, the width suggesting the bank has slumped and spread considerably over the centuries. The external fosse is similarly diminished, running to about two metres across and sitting only 0.6 metres below the level of the surrounding ground.

What makes the site quietly interesting is precisely that near-erasure. The dimensions are still legible, the circular logic of the place still traceable if you know what you are looking for, but the land has done its slow work of reclaiming it. It sits as a faint ring in the low Kerry fields, still mappable, still measurable, but only just there.