Ringfort (Rath), Doory, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Ringforts
A low circular platform rising just over a metre above a small Kerry field, this site near Portmagee Channel is classified on the Ordnance Survey maps as a ringfort, yet the local name tells a rather different story.
It is known in the area as a ceallĂșnach, a term that in Irish tradition refers to an early burial ground, often associated with unbaptised children or pre-Christian interment practices, and typically occupying an ancient enclosure repurposed for that purpose. Small upright grave-markers, averaging around a quarter of a metre in height, are clustered within its western half, quiet and unassuming in the grass.
The confusion between ringfort and burial ground is not unusual in the Irish landscape. Ringforts, roughly circular enclosures defined by an earthen bank and internal platform, were built predominantly during the early medieval period, between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries, as defended farmstead enclosures. Over time, many fell out of agricultural use and acquired new roles in local memory and practice, sometimes becoming informal burial sites. This particular enclosure measures approximately 29.5 metres north to south and 30.5 metres east to west, a modest but well-preserved example set into the south-east corner of a small field. Modern field banks now define its eastern and southern edges, but the original platform survives clearly elsewhere, still raised above the surrounding ground. The site sits a short distance south of the Portmagee Channel, on the Iveragh Peninsula, a stretch of south Kerry coastline surveyed in detail by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan in their 1996 archaeological study of the region.