Ringfort (Rath), Ardagh, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Ardagh, Co. Kerry

In a field in Ardagh, County Kerry, a roughly circular earthwork sits quietly in the landscape, its bank still rising nearly three metres above the surrounding ground.

That kind of preservation is not especially common. Ringforts, known in Irish as raths, were the farmsteads of early medieval Ireland, typically enclosing a family's dwelling and outbuildings within one or more earthen banks. Most have been softened by centuries of ploughing and grazing, yet this one retains a profile sharp enough to read clearly from ground level.

The rath measures roughly 34 metres north to south and 32 metres east to west, making it a reasonably substantial example. Its single enclosing bank, which is what archaeologists mean by univallate, reaches 2.8 metres in height on the outside and 2.2 metres above the interior floor. Two original gaps break the circuit, one to the north about 2.5 metres wide and one to the south about 2 metres wide, suggesting either a main entrance and a secondary one, or possibly a deliberate arrangement of access points. What draws particular attention, though, is a square depression near the centre of the interior, measuring roughly 3.6 metres on each side. The leading interpretation is that this marks the roof collapse of a souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage or chamber that early Irish farming communities used for storage and occasionally as a refuge. The possibility becomes more pointed by the fact that separate souterrain remains were identified in the same field just a few metres to the east, raising the likelihood that the two features were once connected as part of the same underground system.

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