This one, in Taghmon, County Westmeath, does the opposite. It sits on low, marshy terrain, enclosed by hills rather than sitting above them, which gives it a quietly anomalous character among the thousands of similar monuments scattered across the Irish landscape.

A ringfort, sometimes called a rath, is a roughly circular enclosure defined by an earthen bank and, often, an external ditch or fosse. They were typically built during the early medieval period and served as farmsteads for farmers and minor lords. This example is sub-oval in shape, measuring approximately 34 metres across on its north-east to south-west axis. The enclosing bank has not survived well; along the eastern side it has been reduced to little more than a scarp, a low, sloping edge in the ground. A fosse, the ditch that would originally have run around the outside of the bank, is still traceable. There is an entrance gap on the northern side, roughly 2.9 metres wide, which is narrow enough to suggest it was always a controlled point of entry rather than a broad opening. Inside, the ground rises slightly towards the centre, and faint traces of cultivation ridges suggest the enclosed space was used for growing crops at some point. Just outside the monument, to the north and east, drains and water channels remain visible, likely a response to the persistently wet ground. A second ringfort sits approximately 80 metres to the east, which raises the possibility that the two enclosures were related, perhaps part of the same agricultural or social unit.