Ringfort (Rath), Faha, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Faha, Co. Kerry

Some archaeological sites are remarkable for what they contain.

This one in Faha, on the north Kerry coast, is remarkable for the fact that it no longer exists at all. A ringfort, known in Irish as a rath, was once a circular or oval earthen enclosure used as a farmstead or defended homestead, typically dating from the early medieval period. This particular example sat at the edge of a cliff just south of Leek Castle, and the cliff has since taken it. Coastal erosion has swallowed the site entirely, leaving nothing to visit and no physical trace to study.

The antiquarian Thomas Johnson Westropp recorded it in 1909, when enough remained to be described in reasonable detail. He noted a low earthwork measuring roughly 105 feet by 84 feet at its widest, narrowing to between 60 and 66 feet, with a smaller interior mound some 57 feet long positioned to the south-west. Even at that stage the site was already partly defaced, damaged by a modern ditch and fence running along the cliff edge. The enclosure Westropp recorded was modest by ringfort standards, its earthworks low and irregular, but it was recognisably a coherent site. Within a century, the sea had removed whatever the fencing and ditching had left.

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