Ringfort (Rath), Camp, Co. Kerry

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Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Camp, Co. Kerry

On the eastern slopes of Corrin mountain, where the ground drops towards the Finglas river valley, a roughly oval enclosure sits with a view that stretches from Tralee Bay in the north to the Iron Age hillfort of Caherconree in the southeast.

What makes this particular rath quietly compelling is not its condition, which is partial at best, but what lies beneath it. Three exposed capstones in the interior hint at a souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage of the kind commonly built within early medieval ringforts, used variously for storage, refuge, or the cooling of dairy produce. The passage runs roughly north-northwest to south-southeast for about three metres, is less than a metre wide, and may extend further: three large boulders visible on the outer face of the bank to the south could indicate a continuation of the same structure underground.

The rath itself is univallate, meaning it has a single enclosing bank rather than the concentric rings seen at more elaborate sites. Its interior measures approximately twenty metres across in both directions. The northern and northwestern sections of the bank have been removed entirely and replaced by two field boundaries, which probably fall just inside the original line. Where the bank survives, it rises to a maximum of 1.5 metres on the outer face and 0.6 metres internally, with a base width varying between 2.5 and 3.5 metres. There is a gap of three to four metres on the eastern side, likely the original entrance. A stone-lined hollow near the centre of the enclosure, roughly two metres by three and a half, open to the east and about a metre deep, adds another layer of uncertainty: its precise function is not recorded, but its proximity to the souterrain capstones is presumably not coincidental. The site was documented by J. Cuppage in the 1986 Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey.

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