Ringfort (Rath), Baile An Ístínigh, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Baile An Ístínigh, Co. Kerry

A laneway now runs where a defensive ditch once stood.

That quiet substitution is one of the more telling details about the ringfort known as Lissadranig, a circular earthwork sitting on level ground beside the Trabeg inlet on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry. The northern section of its fosse, the ditch that once ringed the enclosure, has been absorbed entirely into a farm track, leaving the monument incomplete in a way that quietly signals how rural life has worked around and through ancient features rather than preserving them at a respectful distance.

A univallate rath, meaning a ringfort enclosed by a single bank and ditch, Lissadranig is otherwise reasonably intact. The fosse measures around 2.7 metres wide at its base and rises nearly two metres to the crest of the earthen bank, which still stands up to one metre high on the interior side. The enclosed space is roughly circular, measuring about 21.5 metres across on a north-west to south-east axis, with a formal entrance of around 2.2 metres width set into the eastern side. Two further gaps, one to the north-east and one to the north-west, are thought to be later additions rather than original features, openings created at some point after the rath's initial construction. The site was recorded by J. Cuppage in the 1986 Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey of the Dingle Peninsula, a landmark regional study that catalogued the extraordinary density of prehistoric and early medieval monuments along this stretch of the Kerry coastline.

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