Ringfort (Rath), Lauragh, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Lauragh, Co. Kerry

On a low hillock just west of the Healy Pass road in Lauragh, a roughly circular earthwork sits quietly among trees and pasture, its form still legible despite centuries of erosion and the steady passage of cattle.

The enclosure measures about 28 metres north to south and 23 metres east to west, and its bank rises just over two metres above the surrounding ground. These proportions place it firmly in the category of a rath, the Irish term for an enclosed farmstead of the early medieval period, typically built between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands of such sites survive across Ireland, yet each retains its own particular character in the landscape.

This one is defined by an earthen scarp with a rim, a fosse (a defensive ditch, here nearly three metres wide) running from the west-northwest to the north-northeast, and a low outer bank along the same arc. A ramp at the southwest, about five and a half metres wide, marks what was once the formal entrance. The interior slopes gently downward toward the east and is uneven underfoot. Its most intriguing feature sits in the southeast quadrant: a souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage or chamber of a kind commonly associated with Irish raths, used for storage, refuge, or both. The earthworks have been worn by cattle-breaks and informal paths over the years, and trees now grow both within the enclosure and around its edges, softening the outline that would once have been sharply defined.

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Pete F
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