Ringfort (Rath), Imileá An Bhóthair, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Imileá An Bhóthair, Co. Kerry

Most ringforts in Ireland survive as neat, circular earthworks, their geometry still legible in the landscape.

This one, on low-lying ground south of Smerwick Harbour on the Dingle Peninsula, tells a more complicated story. What remains is roughly quadrant-shaped rather than round, its north-eastern and south-eastern sides having long since been absorbed into the straight lines of field fences. The original form has to be inferred as much as seen.

A rath, to use the Irish term, is an early medieval enclosure, typically dating from between the sixth and tenth centuries, defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches. This is a univallate example, meaning it had a single such bank. That bank survives only around the western half of the circuit, rising to a maximum of 1.5 metres on the outer face and just over a metre on the inner, with a base width of around 2 metres. A shallow external fosse, the ditch that would originally have accompanied the bank, can still be traced in the north-western sector, running between 2 and 3 metres wide and up to 0.4 metres deep. There is also a 5-metre break in the bank at the south-west, which may represent the original entrance, though centuries of field boundary work make it difficult to be certain. The internal diameter measures at least 25.9 metres, suggesting a reasonably substantial enclosure despite the losses. The site was recorded as part of J. Cuppage's 1986 archaeological survey of the Corca Dhuibhne region, a survey that documented the remarkable density of prehistoric and early medieval remains across the Dingle Peninsula.

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