Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

In rolling pasture, on the top of a rise, with a steep fall of ground down to the Bandon River to the S. Indicated as a large penannular 'Danish Fort' on a 1775 map (no. 5) by B. Scalé (private collection). The enclosing elements along the SE arc are not indicated on Scalé's map, that area being occupied by 'a slate house and garden'. The rath, formerly on land owned by the Bateman family, appears to be the same one referred to by Ó Riordáin (1933, 19) who noted that 'In Bateman's farm there is said to have been a lios, now cleared away'. According to local information, the rath was partially used as a haggard which was defined by a curving field boundary on the NW side with a deep external ditch. The field boundary was levelled in the 1930s and the haggard extended. The present farm building and yard of Carhoon House appear to occupy the area of the possible rath. It is not visible above ground level.

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 5' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009).

Date of upload: 22 December 2009