Ring’s Redoubt is considered a rare site and is significant both as an individual archaeological site and as part of the interrelated group of sites that make up a heritage landscape relating to the Waikato Campaign of the New Zealand Wars. The redoubt was built by Captain James Tarrant Ring with 200 men of the 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment in July 1863 as a response to Māori raids throughout the Papakura area. It was one of the posts along the Wairoa (Papakura-Clevedon) Road intended to make it a defensible line and cover the end of the Māori tracks through the Hunua ranges. Fighting is recorded to have occurred on July 22nd, 1863, between troops from the redoubt and nearby Māori. Ring’s Redoubt served as a link in the chain of fortifications (redoubts and stockades) constructed to protect European settlers and their landholdings north of Wairoa and the eastern flank of the Great South Road supply route to the Waikato.
Papakura Museum has a full display on the redoubt in the military gallery including artefacts recovered from the site as well as an interactive digital screen that enables visitors to learn all aspects of this historic site and its place in the Ngā pakanga o Aotearoa / New Zealand Wars.
