Ringfort (Rath), Ballyhearny, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Ballyhearny, Co. Kerry

On the southern slope of Coombe Hill on Valentia Island, a roughly oval earthwork sits in rough pasture, looking out over the Portmagee Channel.

It is not especially large, roughly 17 metres north to south and 21.5 metres east to west, but the care taken in its construction is still readable in the ground. This is a univallate rath, meaning a ringfort enclosed by a single bank and ditch rather than multiple concentric rings, and the precision with which its builders laid their stonework is quietly remarkable for something that has been sitting in a Kerry field for well over a thousand years.

The enclosing bank averages about a metre in height above the external fosse, the ditch that runs around the outside, which itself survives to a depth of 1.4 metres and a base width of 3 metres, though only along the northern to eastern arc. What distinguishes this particular site is the stone revetment: contiguous upright slabs, averaging roughly 70 by 45 centimetres and only about 8 centimetres thick, were set against both the outer and inner faces of the bank to stabilise and retain it, with smaller stones packed into the gaps between them. Stretches of this facing survive along the northern half of the exterior and at intermittent points to the south, with further revetting slabs visible along the inner face near the northwest. A single slab positioned at right angles to the bank at the south-southeast may indicate one side of an original entrance. Inside, the southern portion of the floor has been deliberately built up to level out the natural slope of the hillside, a practical detail that speaks to considered, organised occupation. Three small upright slabs also survive within the northern half of the interior, their original function unclear.

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Pete F
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