But the earthwork at Carhoogarriff, sitting on a break in a south-facing slope in West Cork, is the remnant of a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, the most common type of archaeological monument in the Irish landscape. These were enclosed farmsteads, typically dating from the early medieval period, where a family would have lived within a raised bank and ditch for both practical and social reasons, the enclosure signalling status as much as providing security.

This particular example is oval in plan, measuring roughly 34.5 metres north to south and 44.5 metres east to west. The enclosing bank survives to a maximum height of just 0.8 metres on its eastern to north-north-eastern arc, and a shallow external fosse, essentially a drainage or defensive ditch, runs around the outside, still detectable at around 0.5 metres deep. What makes this site slightly unusual is the combination of earthwork and stonework: a stone wall survives along the top of the bank between the north-north-east and east, suggesting either an original construction that used both materials together, or a later addition reinforcing an older earthen form. A causeway, twelve metres wide, crosses the fosse to the east, marking the original entrance point into the enclosure.