Ringfort (Rath), Ardfert Oughter, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Ardfert Oughter, Co. Kerry

What gives this ringfort in Ardfert Oughter an extra layer of interest is not just the enclosure itself but what has been found sitting inside it.

Ringforts, the circular enclosed settlements that dot the Irish landscape in their thousands and date broadly to the early medieval period, are common enough in Kerry. But this one contains two distinct stone house sites within its interior, each with its own measurable footprint and surviving wall thickness, and beneath both structures lie depressions in the ground whose purpose has not been formally explained.

The ringfort is univallate, meaning it has a single enclosing bank rather than the double or triple rings sometimes found at higher-status sites. That bank is well preserved: roughly 5 metres wide, it rises nearly 2 metres above the surrounding ground on the outside and about 1.5 metres above the interior floor, which means the enclosed space sits slightly lower than the bank's crest. The interior measures approximately 22 metres north to south and 25 metres east to west. In the northern sector, two stone house sites have been recorded: an oval structure measuring around 4.8 by 4.2 metres, with walls between 0.6 and 1 metre thick, and a slightly smaller sub-oval one about 2 metres to its west, measuring roughly 3.8 by 4 metres. Directly beneath each of these structures is a depression in the ground, the two measuring approximately 4 by 4.8 metres and 4.8 by 4.6 metres respectively. Whether those depressions are structural features, the result of subsidence, or something earlier, the record does not say. The site also sits in the same field as another nearby monument, with field banks touching it on its eastern and western sides. These details were first systematically recorded by C. Toal in the North Kerry Archaeological Survey, published in 1995.

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