Ringfort (Rath), Ballinaltig, Co. Cork

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Ballinaltig, Co. Cork

On a west-facing slope in Ballinaltig, County Cork, there is a ringfort that no longer exists, at least not in any form visible to the eye.

The field is pasture now, and the ground gives nothing away. No bank, no ditch, no raised profile. Whatever a person standing there might notice, it would not be this.

A ringfort, or rath, was a circular enclosed settlement typical of early medieval Ireland, usually defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches, and used as a farmstead or place of habitation. This one measured roughly 35 metres east to west and 30 metres north to south, making it a modest but not insignificant example. When the Ordnance Survey mapped the area in 1842, the site was still readable in the landscape as a scarped platform, meaning the ground had been deliberately cut and shaped to create a level or terraced surface, a technique often used in constructing raths on sloping ground. That 1842 record is now the primary evidence that the feature existed at all. At some point after the map was made, the earthworks were levelled, most likely through agricultural improvement, and the site lost every trace of its surface archaeology.

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Pete F
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