What is recorded here

Reen is a two-kilometre coastal promontory in County Cork where five earthen banks and intervening fosses guard a narrow landward neck. The first two banks remain substantial, the second wearing an external stone face, while the later three drop to barely a metre high and stop short of the northern edge. That incomplete line suggests the fort may have grown in stages rather than appearing fully formed, perhaps adapting as trade, threat or belief changed along the western sea.

Sub-rectangular promontory (2km NE-SW; 550m NW-SE) extends SW to Crow Head. Narrower neck (Wth 200m) on landward side defended by five earthen banks with intervening fosses. Bank one (int. H 1.6m) and bank two are substantial; bank three is low (H 0.7m); bank four and five are similar to bank three only extend from S side to entrance, a distance of 84m. Bank two stone-faced externallly; less substantial from entrance to N side. Entrance (Wth 3m) with causeways. Interior consists of undulating moorland broken by some rock outcrop. Disused field boundaries and anomalous scatter of stonesnoted on N side of promontory. According to local information, turf cut here up to recently. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 1: West Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1992). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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