Ringfort (Rath), Deerpark, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Ringforts
In Deerpark, County Kerry, a circular earthwork sits quietly losing its shape.
The site is a rath, a type of ringfort built during the early medieval period, typically consisting of a circular bank and ditch enclosing a farmstead or dwelling. What makes this one quietly curious is not what survives but what is happening to it: by the time anyone thought to document it closely, it was already heavily distorted from its original form, overgrown and inaccessible, the neat geometry of its enclosure blurring back into the surrounding landscape.
The enclosure appears on Ordnance Survey maps from 1841 to 1842 and again on the 1916 revision, which tells us it was visible and recognisable to surveyors across at least seven decades. C. Toal's North Kerry Archaeological Survey, published in 1995 by Brandon in association with FÁS, catalogued it as entry number 546, noting even then that the site was in poor condition. The gap between those two map appearances and the survey's publication suggests a long, slow process of degradation rather than any sudden event. Ringforts are extraordinarily common across Ireland, with tens of thousands recorded, yet a significant number exist in exactly this condition: marked, numbered, and then left to the brambles.