Ringfort (Rath), Drommurrin, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Drommurrin, Co. Kerry

There is something quietly melancholy about a monument that has almost ceased to be a monument.

The rath at Drommurrin in north Kerry survives today as little more than a faint swell in a pasture field, a barely legible line in the grass where an earthen bank once defined the boundary of an early medieval farmstead. The southern and south-western arc of that bank has vanished entirely, and what remains rises only about half a metre above the surrounding ground, spread wide at the base, between nine and fourteen metres across, as though the structure has slowly settled and spread under its own weight over centuries of grazing and cultivation.

A rath, sometimes called a ringfort, was the standard enclosed farmstead of early medieval Ireland, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century. A single earthen bank and external ditch, enclosing a circular or oval area of ground, would have sheltered a household, its outbuildings, and its livestock. This example at Drommurrin is univallate, meaning it had just one such enclosing bank rather than the two or three rings seen at higher-status sites. Its internal dimensions, around thirty metres north to south and twenty-four metres east to west, are broadly typical of the form. The site sits in pastureland and commands good views in all directions, which would have been as practical a consideration for a farming family watching over livestock as it is now simply a feature of the landscape. The deterioration has been significant and measurable; survey work recorded in C. Toal's North Kerry Archaeological Survey, published in 1995, noted that the site had been much levelled since 1976, suggesting decades of gradual erosion through agricultural use.

Visitors approaching the site should be prepared for a feature that rewards patience and a certain willingness to read the land carefully. From a distance there is little to see, but standing at the right angle in low morning or evening light, when shadows lengthen across the pasture, the slight rise of the surviving bank and the sub-circular outline of the enclosed area become more legible. The southern portion offers nothing to trace, but the northern and eastern arc, however faint, still holds the shape of something that was once deliberately made.

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