What is recorded here

Half a century of grass and forgetfulness has swallowed the fort at Rathcool, leaving only a faint northern ridge and the memory of a circular enclosure drawn on an 1842 map. It sits beside the Owenbaun River, small enough to hide in pasture yet old enough to anchor the land before human names were spoken. What remains is not a ruin but a suggestion: a circle of earth, a boundary drawn by hands now gone, waiting for someone to walk its ghost line and remember shape before story.

In pasture, atop natural rise at W side of new line of Owenbaun River. Depicted as hachured circular enclosure (diam. c. 50m) on 1842 OS 6-inch map. Natural scarp to S appears to defines area of site on S side; low rise (int. H 0.5m; ext. H 0.3m) to N may mark line of levelled bank. According to Bowman (1934, 357) one of two levelled single-ramparted forts (CO030-145---) on Mr McCarthy's land. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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