Ringfort (Rath), Carhooearagh, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Carhooearagh, Co. Kerry

The Irish name of this earthwork in north Kerry carries an unusual charge: Lios Cúil Imrisc, meaning roughly "ringfort of the nook of the contention".

Whatever dispute once attached itself to this particular corner of the landscape has long since dissolved, but the earthwork itself survives in considerable detail, which is more than can be said for many of its kind.

A ringfort, or rath, is an enclosed circular or near-circular area defined by one or more earthen banks, used broadly from the Iron Age through the early medieval period as a farmstead or place of habitation. This example is bivallate, meaning it has two concentric enclosing banks rather than one, a feature that implies either greater status or a particular need for defence. The inner bank rises 1.7 metres above the interior floor and a more commanding 4.4 metres above the fosse, the ditch that separates the two banks. That fosse, where it survives, is steep-sided, wide, and U-shaped in profile, measuring between roughly 2.4 and 4.4 metres across. The outer bank, averaging about 6 metres at its base, still stands up to 2.6 metres above the fosse in places. The interior of the enclosure sits at a higher level than the surrounding ground, as is typical of these structures, and the whole thing spans roughly 29 metres north to south and 24 metres east to west. Agriculture has trimmed the edges over the centuries: field banks and drainage works have interrupted the outer bank and fosse to the west and northwest and again between the east-northeast and southeast. A 4-metre gap in the southeast sector of the inner bank may mark an original entrance, though no matching gap exists in the outer bank, leaving the question of how people actually passed between the two enclosures somewhat open.

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