Ringfort (Rath), Ballynahow More, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Ballynahow More, Co. Kerry

At the southern edge of a gently sloping pasture in Ballynahow More, the ground falls away sharply to the Ferta river below, and it is precisely at this point that someone, roughly a thousand or more years ago, chose to build.

The earthwork that survives here is a univallate rath, meaning a ringfort enclosed by a single bank and ditch, the most common form of early medieval settlement in Ireland. Thousands of these sites exist across the country, yet each one carries its own particular relationship with the land it occupies, and this one was positioned with some care: the drop to the river provides a natural southern defence, while the elevated ground opens up long views down the valley.

The enclosing bank still stands to around 1.5 metres on its outer face, though the southeastern sector has been largely levelled, most likely through centuries of agricultural activity. Where the bank survives, fragments of drystone facing are visible along its inner flank, suggesting that at some point the earthen structure was reinforced or revetted with stone. Outside the bank, faint traces of a fosse, a shallow external ditch, can still be made out to the northwest and south; it measures roughly 4 metres wide and only about 30 centimetres deep at this point, much reduced from whatever depth it originally held. The interior of the enclosure measures approximately 22.5 metres north to south and 24 metres east to west. A gap in the bank at the southwest is thought to be the original entrance, while a second gap at the northeast is considered a more recent break. The site was catalogued by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan in their 1996 archaeological survey of the Iveragh Peninsula, published by Cork University Press.

The rath sits in ordinary farmland, and its edges are worn and softened by time. The drystone traces are intermittent rather than dramatic, and the fosse requires some attention to notice at all. What remains most legible is the position itself, that deliberate placement above the river, which still reads clearly in the landscape even now.

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