Ringfort (Rath), Tulla Beg, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Tulla Beg, Co. Kerry

In the landscape of Tulla Beg, a low earthen ring carries an old name that hints at its appearance: Lisroe, or Lios rua in Irish, meaning the russet ringfort.

The colour presumably refers to the warm, reddish tone of the earthen bank when freshly exposed or seen in certain light, and it is the kind of detail that suggests local people were describing something they actually looked at and lived beside, rather than recording an administrative category.

The site is a univallate rath, meaning it is enclosed by a single bank and ditch rather than the multiple concentric rings found at more elaborate examples. Ringforts of this type were the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically serving as farmsteads enclosed for security and livestock management. This one is roughly circular, measuring 33 metres north to south and 34 metres east to west. The enclosing bank is well preserved, standing about 1.9 metres high on the outer face and around 1 metre on the inner side, with a base width of 5.5 metres. Two gaps on the eastern and south-eastern sides, measuring 3 metres and 2 metres respectively, mark the original or later points of entry. A fieldbank running east to west cuts across the interior, a reminder that agricultural land use did not stop at the edge of ancient monuments; farmers in later centuries divided and worked the ground inside the ring just as they would any other field.

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