What is recorded here

Thirty-two metres across and D-shaped on a south-facing slope, the Ballynacourty ringfort still casts a shadow wide enough to swallow a person whole. Its earthen bank rises nearly two metres, guarding a broken seam in the southeast where someone once stepped through without permission. The fairies may have built it, but the sharp ditch and unmarked interior suggest human hands shaped a place where visibility mattered more than comfort.

Internal diam. 32m E-W, 25m N-S A D-shaped rath situated on a S facing slope with good open views in all directions. The external fosse can be traced around the entire perimeter, but is best-preserved along the straight N side where it is protected by the field wall which skirts its outer edge. It is 3m wide and .6m deep. The earthen bank is c. 2m wide and a maximum of 1.75m high. There is a 1.6m wide break through the bank at SE. The mounds and depressions in the interior do not form any recognisable pattern. Ashe (1954, 8) described the site as a bivallate enclosure with a practically demolished outer bank. There is now no trace of the latter, nor is it marked on the OS maps. The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 331. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 6 August 2013

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