This example at Coorleigh, sitting on a south-facing slope in County Cork, is a particularly legible survivor. What makes it worth pausing over is the way two different building traditions meet in the same structure: the enclosing bank is earthen, as is typical of a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort built primarily from soil and sod, yet sections of dry-stone walling have been laid on top of that bank along the south-east, south, and north-west arcs. The result is a composite boundary, the earthwork doing the heavy lifting of enclosure while the stone courses above it suggest either later reinforcement or simply a builder who used whatever material was close to hand.

The fort is roughly circular, measuring 24.5 metres north to south and 26.5 metres east to west, which puts it in the mid-range for a site of this type. The bank itself stands about 1.6 metres high, and on the north-east side a shallow external fosse, a defensive ditch, runs along the outside. Two openings break the circuit: one to the north-north-east and one to the south-west, each around five metres wide, the south-western gap most likely marking the original entrance. Ringforts like this one were typically built during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and functioned as enclosed farmsteads for a single family or kin group. The south-facing slope would have been a deliberate choice, offering shelter, drainage, and good light for the settled ground inside.