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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Gortatlea (Trughanacmy By.), County Kerry, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Gortatlea, County Kerry, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Gortatlea (Trughanacmy By.)
County
Kerry
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Hachured
Latest-edition OS map
Partially indicated
Coordinates
52.22705, -9.57263
SMR number
KE039-042----

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1841 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Ringfort described by O'Hare (2000, 89) as follows; 'The ringfort consists of a roughly circular area (28m north-south; 30m east-west) enclosed by an earthen bank and fosse. It lies immediately north of a farmyard, to which it now forms an extension. The surrounding land is under pasture and slopes to the north-north-east. The view from the interior is limited. The internal face of the earthen bank appears best preserved on the north and west. It stands to a maximum height of 0.6m on the north. In contrast, on the north-east, east and south-east, the internal face is denuded and has been badly trampled by cattle. The external bank face is, for the most part, well preserved. It stands to a maximum height of 1.45m on the north-north-west. The bank is interrupted for a distance of 10.7m on the south-south-west; the farmyard lies immediately outside of it here. A break, probably modern and now closed by a farm gate, lies to the north-north-cast. It is 3.2m wide. A faint slope into the external bank face from east to south-south-east and again from south-west to north-west suggests the former presence of a fosse. The interior is somewhat worn by its use as an access route for the fields to the northwest'.

See attached Google Earth orthoimages

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 7 June 2022

O'Hare, P. 2000 Holy wells and other sites of pilgrimage within a portion of East Kerry. Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society 29, 55-98.

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
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