Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

Internal diam. 27m.
This circular rath lies on a S facing slope overlooking Ventry Harbour and contains the remains of a single hut. The site straddles a N-S field boundary but the field fence breaks to respect the monument and does not traverse it. The earthen enclosing bank is a maximum of 1.5m high internally and 3.2m high externally, and there are fragmentary traces of drystone facing along its inner flank. An external fosse is present around the W half of the site only. It is 3.4m wide and 1.25m deep. Drystone facing, up to .3m high, occurs for a very short distance on the inner edge of the fosse at SW, and it is possible that the dense vegetation on the site obscures further traces of this feature. A very low outer bank is also present around the W half of the enclosure, but it is possible that this is the remains of a disused field fence. The 2m wide entrance gap faces S.
The ruined remains of a clochaun lie in the centre of the enclosure. It is 4.7m in diameter and the wall is generally reduced to a band of stone collapse, .7m wide and up to .8m high. Only very short stretches of the wall faces survive. The entrance was probably at the SW point. A low platform, .2m high and c. 3m wide, abuts the inner edge of the bank at SW; its origin is not clear.

The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 328. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 6 August 2013