Discover Alone, back to main map

Ballymunterhiggin Fairy Fort

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Ballymunterhiggin Fairy Fort is a ruined ringfort on a Donegal ridge, its earth bank flattened by time and farm work while two ancient burial mounds still watch from nearby. The fort likely marked human life long before records, perhaps a home, a boundary or a place of ritual now reduced to a faint circle in pasture. Its name suggests locals once believed the fairies inherited what people forgot, turning human loss into mythical continuity.
In the NW corner of a pasture field, located on the level top of a roughly ENE-WSW ridge, close to the break of slope on the N side where the ground falls away to N in a long gently slope. Slightly raised, roughly circular area (32m E–W; 27.4m N–S to field drain at N) defined NE–NW by a low earthen bank (Wth 5.5-6m; int. H 0.3m; ext. H 0.7m, at E) with an external fosse (Wth 3.5-4m). The bank has been partly levelled and is reduced to a low internal lip with a broadly slumped external scarp. At NW a section of bank (Wth 5m) is entirely levelled. The fosse is infilled and is evident as a cropmark of soft, wet ground distinguished by a thicker growth of rushes. At NNW-NE the bank and fosse are truncated by a field ditch, bordered on its N side by an earth and stone field fence. A gap (Wth 2.5m) in the bank at SE may indicate the original entrance. In the E half of the level interior, there is a faint outline of a N–S linear feature (Wth c. 1m), possibly the remnant of a field boundary or of ridge and furrow cultivation. Two ringbarrows (DG107-095----; DG107-096----) are located on the same ridge, c. 160m and c. 60m, respectively, to SW. Attached image: DG107-123----_01.JPG viewed from SE Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 10 April 2014

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.

What survives
Recorded monument

Places near here

Add to this placeAdd a picture Comment or add a tip

Explore 1,118,481 places