What is recorded here

Half a ring of earth still stands in Ballykissane pasture, twenty-three metres across, while ploughs and greed took the rest. Inside the broken circle lies a robbed trench, deep and wide, where a hidden passage once ran north to south beneath the grass. The fort has lost more than shape; it has lost its certainty, leaving behind a hollow that swallows light and memory alike.

Internal diam. 23.2m ENE-WSW This severely disturbed univallate rath is situated on a fairly level tract of pastureland, a short distance S of the Laune river estuary. It is depicted on the first edition of the OS map as a circular enclosure, but the second edition map shows that much of its bank at S and E had been levelled by 1894. A band of loose stone and earth now marks its limits here. The remainder of the site is enclosed by a bank which measures 1.3m high and 2.4m wide. Its crest is almost flush with the level of the overgrown interior. In the disturbed SE sector of the interior are the remains of a dug-out Man-made underground passage (KE056-015002-). These consist of short sections of drystone walling and some displaced lintels in a robber's trench, running N-S, which is up to 3m deep and 5.7m wide. 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. 457. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 28 July 2013

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