Staigue stone fort, Stone ringfort in County Kerry, Ireland

Staigue stone fort is a circular dry-stone ringfort on the Iveragh peninsula, County Kerry, about 18 km west of Sneem. Its wall of undressed local sandstone stands up to 5.5 m high, is 4 m thick at the base and encloses a space 27.4 m across. A low lintelled doorway leads through a 1.8 m passage roofed with massive double lintels; inside, stairways climb to terraces and corbelled cells set in the wall.

Staigue was probably built in the late Iron Age, around 100 BC, as a stronghold for a local lord or king. Its dating long remained uncertain, and the site has also been read as a defended night enclosure for people and livestock or as a ritual place. It is among the best-preserved ringforts in Ireland, alongside Cahergall and Leacanabuaile in County Kerry.

The structure displays early Irish building methods using local stone fitted together without mortar. Visitors can observe how the stones are precisely stacked yet remain stable over time.

Access to the site is through a designated parking area located about 18 kilometers west of Sneem on the Iveragh Peninsula. The surroundings are open and the walk to the fort itself is fairly short.

Vertical joints in the wall show where gaps were left open during building and filled in later, and the entrance passage is roofed with massive double lintels. About 50 m past an old stone bridge south of the fort, roughly 100 m up the hill to the right, lie rock slabs covered in numerous carvings.