Ringfort (Rath), Kilclogh, Co. Cork

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Kilclogh, Co. Cork

Beneath a field of pasture in Kilclogh, County Cork, lies a ringfort that has all but disappeared into the ground.

A ringfort, or rath, is a circular earthen enclosure typically dating from the early medieval period, built to define a farmstead and offer a degree of protection for its inhabitants. This one measured roughly 35 metres in diameter, a modest but respectable size, and today leaves no visible trace on the surface whatsoever.

The site was recorded on the Ordnance Survey's six-inch map of 1842, where it appears as a hachured circular enclosure, the standard cartographic shorthand of the period for a raised earthen ring. By the time P. J. Hartnett wrote about it in 1939, it was already in a poor state, described as only faintly traceable. At some point after that, whatever remained was levelled entirely, most likely through continued agricultural use of the land. The pasture that covers it now gives no hint of what lies beneath.

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