County: Kerry Site name: MOYBELLA NORTH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 5:64 Licence number: 94E0170
Author: Michael Connolly, Kerry County Museum
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 490873m, N 638748m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.489217, -9.606867
The excavations at this site were occasioned by the construction of a slatted cowshed and effluent tank. Foundation digging was monitored.
The site is situated in level pasture land with good views of the land in all directions particularly to the south towards the river Feale. The site is 48m west of the Glasheen stream.
The ringfort which stood on the site was noted on the 1842 edition of the Ordnance Survey 6" Sheet and is recorded as being a univallate fort. It has, however, been destroyed in a piecemeal fashion over the years.
The OS 6" map records that the eastern and north-eastern sections of the fort had been destroyed and that domestic and farm buildings had been constructed on this part of the site. These buildings have since been replaced by more modern farm buildings and no surface trace of the ringfort now remains. The final levelling of the site took place prior to 1943, when the present landowners purchased the farm.
Since then a silage pit has been constructed in what would have been the fort interior and a concrete pit has been constructed in the area immediately outside what would have been the northern side of the fort.
A section of earthen bank remains on the northern side of the site but this was constructed during the building of the concrete pit on that side of the site. Other undulations and sections of bank around the site are also due to modern construction work rather than being part of the original fort.
A number of mature deciduous trees form a sub-circular arrangement on the western, southern and northern sides of the site and may indicate the position of the ringfort bank. The area inside these trees measures 38.4m north-south and 24.2m east-west from the edge of the modern farm buildings.
The present construction necessitated the excavation of an area measuring 18.9m up to a depth of 0.6m. The area under construction is situated on the northern side of the fort and would have been the site of the outer ditch and bank.
The whole area had been very disturbed and no definite stratigraphy was noted. On the northern edge of the area the topsoil was deeper than 0.6m and elsewhere averaged 0.45m. The topsoil rested on a light brown loam on the southern side of the area while on the eastern and western sides a light brown marl clay showed intermittently. The previous disturbance of the area was evidenced by the occurrence of old farm machinery parts and general farm debris at the 0.6m depth limit of the excavation.
The excavation did not produce any finds or conclusive evidence for the original position of the above ground elements of the fort. Given the general disturbed nature of the site it is doubtful if further investigation would provide any clearer picture of the nature of the site and any finds would be impossible to place in any firm context.
Tralee, Co. Kerry
