There were corridors and corridors of maize. Pat walked on confident establishing a route through the crop. Despite being tall, I felt small like being in the land of giants. It was a warm balmy autumn's evening and if it had been raining the days previous, access would be near impossible and we would have been soaked by the leaves of the maize plant.

Ruins of Dromgownagh Ringfort with trees, a mile north of Lower Dripsey, Autumn 2007. Pictures: Kieran McCarthy

There were spider webs everywhere like something out of an Indiana Jones film. We emerged at the cross section of a number of fields and there was Kilblaffer Ringfort a mile and a half north east of the Model Village, Dripsey) and very much protected by the crops and nature. It was hidden away in the landscape, laying idle and shrouded in mystery. Its banks had collapsed and eroded by the weather.

In today's world, we have coined the term ringfort (or rath) for the above type of monument but the reality is all that is left of the memory of those structures is the actual structure. In other words, people living in them at one time may not have called them ringforts. Despite their multiple nature on the Irish landscape, questions such as who built them, what was their varied function and why locate in a certain area over another cannot be answered. However, the forts are still part of our life stories. Those forts in the Lee Valley have shaped life in the valley in their own way. In addition, we can walk amidst the ruins and reflect on people and place 1,000 years ago.

Ringforts are one of the most commonest archaeological monuments in rural Ireland, oval or sometimes pear shaped area enclosed by one or more earthen banks and ditches. The boundaries of ringforts re-enforced the identity of the inhabitants. In a sense, it privatised space. It also became a way people perceived their individual identities and communality. The internal dwellings were basic - round wicker or post-and-wattle buildings. Ringforts have been excavated, surveyed and discussed in great detail by archaeologists - tiny fractions of known ringforts have been excavated, probably somewhere in the region of 200 sites. Our perceptions are biased by the nature of the evidence.

Unfortunately much of that information which has been accumulated over the years seems to have not been filtered down to the general public i.e. dates, typology and structural features. That is certainly the case of the many landowners I met who had ringforts on their lands in the Lee Valley, who wanted to learn more about these monuments. A better understanding is required to appreciate how ringforts have added to our present day landscape and identity.

The abundance of ringforts means that few are protected monuments. however, despite our lack of understanding of those structures, many are protected by myths and legends especially stories about fairy folk and their occupation of such monuments. Many of these sites hold a fascination for people. The ruins of ringforts are multiple in their distribution across Ireland. In terms of the Lee Valley, they occur in significant concentrations on the warmer south facing slopes with highly productive brown podzolic soil from Ballyvourney through the Lee Valley through to Midleton.

Thinking about the construction of so many ringforts could be similar to us thinking about our present day housing boom and how that came about. Changes occurred in the national economy and society, which affected society in local contexts. At one time, the construction of a ringfort was an accepted way of thinking. Compared to today, people's world view was very different as was their way of life. Ringforts created stability. On the other side of the coin because of the irruinous nature in the Irish landscape, there also came a point in time when instability in society arose and those living within these forts wanted to move on to better accommodation creating new organizational structures.