Ringfort (Rath), Letter, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Ringforts

Ringfort (Rath), Letter, Co. Kerry

On the southern slopes of Bentee in County Kerry, a roughly oval earthwork sits in open pasture, its dimensions slightly lopsided in a way that hints at long centuries of settling and encroachment.

The bank still rises a respectable 2.6 metres above the surrounding ground, yet inside the enclosure the ground has been worked so thoroughly that the interior sits almost level with the top of the bank itself, robbing it of the visual drama that better-preserved examples tend to hold.

This is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, the type of enclosed farmstead that was the dominant form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, roughly from the fifth to the twelfth century. Thousands survive across the country in varying states of repair, but this one on the Iveragh Peninsula carries an extra layer of agricultural biography. The interior is covered by east-to-west cultivation ridges, the kind of lazy-bed or ridge-and-furrow tillage common from the medieval period onwards, which means the enclosure was pressed into farming use long after whatever household originally sheltered behind its bank had gone. A modern field boundary cuts across the northern arc, further blurring the outline. More intriguing is a level platform abutting the southern side of the rath, roughly twelve metres wide, defined by its own low outer bank and raised about 1.8 metres above the surrounding land. This platform carries its own set of cultivation ridges running north to south, perpendicular to those inside the main enclosure, suggesting it was managed separately, perhaps at a different period. Whether it represents an original external feature of the rath or a later addition is not entirely clear, but its raised, banked character sets it apart from ordinary field terracing.

The rath sits approximately 330 metres north-east of another recorded site in the same townland, which suggests this part of the Iveragh landscape was fairly densely settled at some point. The peninsula's archaeological survey, compiled by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan and published by Cork University Press in 1996, catalogued it among hundreds of similar monuments across south Kerry, many of them equally worn down by the combined pressures of farming, field drainage, and time.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Ringfort (Rath), Letter, Co. Kerry. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 50 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement