Ringfort (Rath), Ballintogher, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Ballintogher, Co. Kerry

What was once a clearly defined early medieval enclosure at Ballintogher in north Kerry has, over the centuries, been so thoroughly absorbed into the working landscape that stretches of its bank have effectively become a field boundary.

This gradual disappearance into the farmland around it is part of what makes the site quietly interesting: a ringfort, or rath, is a roughly circular earthwork enclosure, typically dating from the early medieval period, that once defined a farmstead or settlement, and this one has been slowly surrendered to the land it once organised.

The enclosure is sub-circular rather than perfectly round, measuring approximately 29 metres across on its north-south axis and around 37 metres east to west, giving it a slightly irregular interior. It appeared clearly on the Ordnance Survey map of 1841 to 1842, which suggests it was still a recognisable feature in the landscape at that point, but by the time later editions were produced it had already begun to fade. The levelling has been most severe across the northern arc, from northwest through north and east and around to south, where the bank is described as very low and wide, in places barely perceptible, spreading to around ten metres wide while rising only about forty centimetres above the surrounding ground. The southern and western portion has fared differently, not because it survived better, but because it was incorporated directly into a field bank, and in that section the earthwork rises to 1.2 metres above the surrounding land and 1.6 metres above the interior, with a base width of around 3.8 metres. The detail comes from C. Toal's North Kerry Archaeological Survey, published in 1995, which catalogued the site as part of a broader effort to document the region's archaeological remains.

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