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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ringfort - rath

Ráth Ciaráin, County Kerry, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ringfort - rath, Ráth Ciaráin, 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
Ráth Ciaráin
County
Kerry
Country
Ireland
Latest-edition OS map
St. Kierans Fort
Coordinates
51.84710, -10.33961
SMR number
KE096-006----

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 1753 map "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1753 · Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae (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

Internal diam. 22m N-S, 21.8m E-W
Keel Fort, St Kieran's Fort/Ráth Ciaráin: This circular bivallate rath is located in pasture on the NE side of St Finan's Bay. Its interior contains the foundations of a circular hut. The low outer bank and fosse are extant from S to NNE, though a modern field boundary overlies a section of the bank at NW. This bank rises up to .9m above external ground level, is 1.6m wide, and, at N, falls 2.8m to the base of the 4m wide fosse. The well-preserved inner bank is composed of earth and stone, and falls .9m on average to the rath's interior. It is up to 4m in basal width and intermittent short stretches of stone facing are visible externally along the NE sector. An ill-defined gap, 2m wide, occurs at E and may represent the original entrance.

Centrally located within the site are the remains of a circular hut (KE096-006001-) with an average internal diameter of 6m. Its sod-covered drystone wall averages .5m high and 2.2m wide. A gap at E may mark the location of its entrance. The rath is locally reputed to contain a souterrain (KE096-006002-), though no surface indications of this are apparent.

The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 542. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 29 July 2013

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
All Ringfort - rath in Kerry All County Kerry records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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