What is recorded here

Aghawoney is a high-banked fairy fort on a flat-topped rise above the Leannan River in County Donegal. Its earthen wall reaches two metres, a wide fosse cuts before it, and a narrow gully runs almost all the way inside the bank. The causeway enters from the southeast through a gap barely wider than a person, leading into a circular space large enough for a household, a herd or a hundred dancing shadows. Stone still protrudes through the earth, as if the fort remembers being built rather than merely buried.

Internal diam. 37m. An almost circular area is enclosed by an earthen bank up to 2m in height and a fosse 4m wide and 1m in depth. There is an entrance gap 1.2 wide and a causeway to the SE. A gully 1m wide and 0.5m deep runs inside the bank for almost all the way. Some stone is visible protruding from the bank. The site is conspicuously placed on a flat-topped rise in good land S of the Leannan River. The above description was derived from the 'Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century.' Compiled by: Brian Lacey with Eamon Cody, Claire Cotter, Judy Cuppage, Noel Dunne, Vincent Hurley, Celie O'Rahilly, Paul Walsh and Seán Ó Nualláin (Lifford: Donegal County Council, 1983). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated. Date of upload: 22 September 2008

Aghawoney High-Banked Fairy Fort is a well-preserved early-medieval ringfort, likely dating to between the 5th and 10th centuries AD, characterized by a high earthen bank and fosse. Local tradition associates such sites with fairy dwellings, and they were often avoided due to beliefs in supernatural inhabitants.

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