Ringfort (Rath), Gortshanavogh, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Ringforts
A small ringfort on the southern slope of a hillock in Gortshanavogh, County Kerry, carries more layers of use within its 22-metre diameter than its modest earthworks might suggest.
The enclosure is defined by an earthen bank, seven metres wide and rising to about 1.4 metres on the outside, with a shallow external fosse, a ditch running around most of its circumference, and what appears to be a causeway entrance at the south-west. So far, unremarkable. What sets it apart is what the concave interior became after its original occupants were long gone: a children's burial ground. Known in Irish tradition as a cillín, such plots were used to inter unbaptised infants and others considered ineligible for consecrated ground, communities quietly reclaiming pre-Christian enclosures for their most quietly grieved dead.
The rath may also be the source of an ogham stone recorded in the Ordnance Survey Name Books for the parish of Killeentierna. Ogham is an early medieval alphabet, typically carved as a series of notches and lines along the edge of a standing stone, and stones bearing it were frequently removed from their original contexts over the centuries, built into walls or carted away entirely. The reference in the Name Books suggests the stone was already displaced by the time the Ordnance Survey was recording local antiquities in the nineteenth century. Immediately to the north, in the adjacent field, lies a souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage or chamber associated with early medieval settlement, often interpreted as a place of storage or refuge. Together the rath, the souterrain, the ogham stone, and the later cillín represent several distinct phases of human activity converging on a single patch of Kerry hillside.

