What is recorded here

Half the mound is gone, taken for gravel, yet the flat grassy top still faces the Roughty River like a forgotten balcony. The western scar exposes a pale band of silty soil, perhaps the buried edge of an old ditch, while local memory claims birch trees once ringed the green arc. That much of the structure has been removed makes the remaining circle feel less like a monument and more like a trap, inviting people to imagine what the excavators broke open.

In pasture, on a steep N-facing slope, on a grass-covered natural mound, overlooking the valley of the Roughty River. A subcircular level area (18m E-W; 14m N-S) is evident on top of the mound. The W side of the mound has been cut into for gravel extraction. A band of silty soil (Wth c. 3m) was noted at the N and S ends of the gravel face, 0.75m below the top of the mound. This may be the remains of a fosse. According to local information, the area is known as 'the Lios' and once had a 'circular green grassed arc surrounded by birch trees'. The rath is indicated on the 1846 OS 6-inch map as a circular enclosure (diam. c. 25m) with a limekiln c. 5m to the S. On the 1895 OS 6-inch map, the NE arc is indicated as open. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Kerry. Volume I: South-West Kerry' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 30 May 2011

A fairy fort or earthen ringfort in Lounaghan is a likely early-medieval defensive or domestic site, characterized by a subcircular level area on a natural mound. Local tradition associates such sites with fairy folklore, and they were often considered places of supernatural significance in Irish tradition.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.