Ringfort (Rath), Keelties, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Keelties, Co. Kerry

Beneath the pasture grass of Keelties, in the folds of the Kerry landscape, something is hidden under the ground.

A souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage or chamber typically associated with early medieval settlement, lies within the western half of a ringfort that most passing walkers would struggle to identify as anything other than a vaguely raised field. That combination, an earthwork above and a subterranean structure below, speaks to the layered, deliberate way people organised their lives in this part of Ireland more than a thousand years ago.

The ringfort itself is roughly circular, measuring 45 metres north to south and 44.5 metres east to west, and is defined by an earthen bank that still stands to an external height of around 1.65 metres in places. Outside the bank, a fosse, essentially a ditch, runs from the south-east around to the north-east, adding a further line of definition to what would once have been a reasonably substantial enclosure. The eastern entrance, about three metres wide, is partially eroded, and cattle have broken through the bank at both the south and north-west, blurring the outline further. Along the interior base of the bank, running from east to south-west, a faint shallow depression, only about fifteen centimetres deep, can still be traced, possibly the remnant of a drain or structural feature. The site sits on a north-facing slope, so the interior ground falls away toward the north, and the Slieve Mish Mountains are visible on the horizon in that direction. Overgrowth has obscured parts of the bank and fosse, as it tends to do with earthworks that have passed out of active use and into agricultural habit.

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Pete F
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