What is recorded here

Thirty-one metres of rampart and moat cling to the ravine edge in Coollick, where a stream still cuts through the fort's own ditch and spills off the cliff. The causeway entrance, lined with stones on either side, points east toward the dropping light, and two shallow hollows inside hint at the small houses that once fit within the ring. A man named Fleming may have grazed cattle beside it in the 1940s, looking down from the same high ground the field club admired. The fort does not ask to be believed in; it shows its measurements, its water and its gap, leaving the fairy part as a gift for imagination.

In pasture, on a steep SW-facing slope, at the N edge of a deep ravine. A circular area (31.5m E-W) defined by two earthen banks with an intervening fosse and the remains of a possible third bank at ESE. The interior is defined by the inner bank (Wth 4.1m; int. H 0.25m; ext. H 0.8m) SW-SSE and by a scarp SSE-SW. The intervening fosse (Wth 2.4m at the base) is evident WSW-SE. The middle bank (Wth 3.4m; int. H 1.3m; ext. H 3.15m) is evident SW-SE. The SE end of the middle bank terminates at the edge of the ravine. The possible outer bank is evident ESE-SE. The SE end of this bank also terminates at the edge of the ravine. A short arc of a possible fosse occurs outside the middle bank E-SE. The interior is level. There are two possible hut sites (KE058-044001-, KE058-044002-) in the SW and SE quadrants, respectively. There is a possible causeway entrance through the inner (Wth c. 1.6m) and middle (Wth c. 2.4m) banks at E. Stone-facing occurs on both banks at either side of the entrance. A stream enters the intervening fosse at NNW and flows along its base through W, exiting at S over the edge of the ravine. In the 1940s a visit to 'the great fort on Fleming's land at Coolick' was recorded and the rath was described as having 'a high commanding position' and 'very high ramparts and [a] moat' (Minutes of the Co. Kerry Field Club, 1946, vol. 2, 700). Another rath (KE058-043001-) is c. 60m to the S on the opposite side of the ravine. The site of a standing stone (KE058-044003-) is in the SE quadrant of the interior. Compiled by: Elizabeth Byrne, Ursula Egan and Sheila Ronan, Archaeological Survey Unit, University College, Cork. Date of upload: 31 January 2011

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