Ringfort (Rath), Baile An Bhúlaeraigh Theas, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Ringforts
On the southern slopes of Knockmoylemore, looking out over the low-lying ground around Trabeg on the Dingle Peninsula, there is a ringfort that keeps its secrets unusually close.
Known as Lisgortneeva or Lios an Naoimhín, it is a univallate rath, meaning a roughly circular enclosure defined by a single earthen bank rather than multiple defensive rings. What makes this one quietly puzzling is that no clear entrance has ever been identified. Most raths have a recognisable gap in the bank where people and animals passed through; here, that feature is simply absent, or at least no longer legible in what survives.
The enclosing bank is built from earth and stone, with traces of drystone facing still visible in places. It reaches a maximum height of 1.4 metres, though the southern half has been considerably reduced over time, standing barely 0.4 metres above the interior. Some of the facing along the outer edge and a wall that now sits atop the bank to the west are later additions, built after the original structure had already begun to decay. Inside, a substantial stone mound dominates the space, measuring roughly 10.5 by 9.5 metres across and rising to about 1.45 metres at its highest point. At the south-eastern edge of this mound, the corner of a rectangular drystone structure pokes through, its walls surviving to only 0.6 metres in height. A low bank extends the line of one wall for a further six metres or so beyond the visible corner, and it may represent the collapsed remains of a house or an animal pen. Whether the internal mound itself is a deliberate construction, an accumulation of cleared stone, or something older repurposed within the rath's life, the record does not say. The site was documented by J. Cuppage in the 1986 Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey, which remains a foundational study of the area's early medieval landscape.