The rath at Lisleetemple, west of Broadstrand Bay in County Cork, has not been so fortunate. What was once a defined circular enclosure, the kind of fortified farmstead that thousands of early medieval Irish families would have called home, has been levelled almost entirely. The only sign that anything lies underfoot is a slight depression in a pasture field, the faintest of signatures left by a structure that likely stood for centuries.

A rath, to use the Irish term, was typically a raised earthen bank enclosing a domestic settlement, used broadly between the early centuries of the first millennium and the coming of the Normans. The Lisleetemple example sits on a south-facing slope to the west of Broadstrand Bay, with an extensive view of the sea to the east, a position that would have made good practical sense for whoever farmed here. That commanding outlook is now one of the few qualities the site retains. The enclosure has been further compromised by a road to the north, which cuts directly through part of its original circuit, so the full extent of the earthwork can no longer be traced on the ground.