Ringfort (Rath), Coolaruane, Co. Kerry

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Ringfort (Rath), Coolaruane, Co. Kerry

At the corner of a field in Coolaruane, on the boundary between two North Kerry townlands, a circular earthen enclosure sits in a state of considerable neglect.

Its outline is still traceable, but only just. Centuries of cattle have broken up the bank and churned the interior into waterlogged ground, leaving what was once a clearly defined domestic or agricultural enclosure looking more like a subtle irregularity in the landscape than anything a casual eye might pause over.

The site is a univallate rath, meaning it has a single enclosing bank rather than the multiple concentric earthworks found at more elaborate examples. Raths of this kind were the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically serving as enclosed farmsteads for a family and their livestock. This particular example measures 43 metres across in both directions, making it a reasonably substantial specimen. Its earthen bank, where it survives, is about 6 metres wide at the base and still reaches 1.7 metres in height on the outside, though only 1.2 metres on the interior face. The fieldbank running along its western and southern edges doubles as the townland boundary between Coolaruane and Kiltomy, a common arrangement in the Irish countryside where ancient earthworks were absorbed into later administrative and agricultural boundaries. The site was documented in C. Toal's North Kerry Archaeological Survey, published in 1995, which recorded its condition at the time of fieldwork as already heavily compromised by agricultural use.

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Pete F
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