This is Cleenagh Fort, known in Irish as Lios na Claoine, and its proportions are quietly impressive: the enclosed interior measures roughly 32 metres north to south and 28.5 metres east to west, large enough that standing at its centre you are some distance from the enclosing bank in any direction.

The site is a univallate rath, meaning it is defended by a single enclosing bank rather than the concentric rings of earthworks found at more elaborate examples. Raths were the most common form of enclosed settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically associated with farming families of some local standing, used as homesteads and for the protection of livestock. What gives Cleenagh Fort a particular quality is its position: set on a north-facing slope above the Ferta river valley on the Iveragh Peninsula, the surrounding landscape opens out below it. The bank, which on the north-western side barely clears the raised interior by 0.3 metres, was clearly designed to work with the natural elevation of the site rather than compensate for flat ground. The level, raised interior, sitting between one and two metres above the surrounding pasture, creates the impression of a stage or a floor that has simply refused to subside over the intervening centuries.