What is recorded here
Knockglass Beg holds a rectangular ringfort on a gentle slope above Tralee Bay, its earthen bank still standing nearly two metres high and widening to three metres at the base. The eastern entrance remains clear at two metres across, though collapsed drystone and dense vegetation now obscure much of the interior. It may have been a home, a refuge or a marked boundary, but its shape and position suggest people valued the view, the shelter and the visibility of that particular stretch of coast.
A roughly rectangular, earthen-banked enclosure situated on a gentle N facing slope overlooking Tralee Bay. Internally it measures a maximum of c. 28.25m N-S and c. 24m E-W. The single enclosing bank averages 1.5m in height internally, 1.9m in height externally and 3.4m in width at base. The entire inner face of the bank may formerly have been faced with drystone walling but this is now preserved only along the E side and adjacent section of the N side, at the NW corner, and at a couple of isolated points on the W and S sides. Where best preserved, this stands to a maximum height of lm. The entrance faces E and is 2.2m wide. The drystone walling which lined the gap is very collapsed but its probable line is shown on the accompanying plan. The adjoining sections of the outer face of the bank, to N and S of the entrance, are also stone-faced but this feature is not evident elsewhere along the outer face.
Dense vegetation obscures much of the interior of the site and though there is a great deal of loose stone scattered about, no definite features were discernible; some of the stone is probably collapse from the stone-facing to the bank. The site should, perhaps, be interpreted as a rectangular ringfort.
The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 1527. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
Date of upload: 5 August 2013
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- What survives
- Recorded monument
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