The one near Knocklong, in County Limerick, does the opposite. It sits in lowland, a deliberate placement that makes its survival all the more curious, and its waterlogged fosse something of an accidental moat that has persisted for centuries.

A ringfort, or rath, is a roughly circular enclosure defined by an earthen bank and a surrounding ditch, known as a fosse; they were typically used as farmsteads during the early medieval period in Ireland. The Knocklong example was documented in 1942 to 1943 by O'Kelly, whose survey recorded the mound in careful detail. The circular earthen platform measures approximately 46 metres in overall diameter, with its surface sloping from west to east. The fosse encircling it is partly waterlogged, and on the north-east and south-west sides there are berms, flat ledges of ground sitting between the bank and the ditch. At its greatest height, the mound rises around 1.8 metres above the fosse bottom. These are modest but legible proportions, enough to give the structure a quiet presence in the landscape even now. Aerial photographs taken in January 2003 as part of the Archaeological Survey of Ireland confirmed the monument remains clearly visible from above, its circular outline still readable against the surrounding fields.

The site is identifiable on aerial imagery and digital mapping, which makes it possible to locate before visiting. Because it sits in lowland, ground conditions around the fosse are likely to be soft or wet, particularly in autumn and winter, so appropriate footwear is worth considering. The sloping platform and the surviving berms are the details most worth looking for on the ground, since they give a sense of the original construction logic even where the earthworks have settled and softened over time. It is the kind of monument that rewards a moment of stillness; once your eye adjusts to the subtle changes in elevation, the shape of the whole thing becomes surprisingly clear.