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Cahergononey

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Cahergononey is a 57-metre fairy fort on a Galway slope, holding two rectangular house foundations and a probable underground passage. Costello wrote in 1903 about a covered sheep way under the wall, but that exact feature has vanished. The fort still belongs to both people and story, remembering what measurement alone forgets.
On a gentle N-facing slope in grassland. A circular rath (D 57.3m), in fair condition, defined by a denuded bank with intermittent traces of inner and outer stone revetments. From NE to SE, the bank is almost totally levelled. Within the interior are the foundations of two rectangular houses: (a) in SW quadrant (NE-SW; L 13m, Wth 4m) and (b) in NW quadrant (E-W; L 12m, Wth 7m), and also a probable Man-made underground passage (GA057-134001-). Just to E of centre are traces of a low bank (L 7m) running NNW-SSE. The stone-built 'covered way for sheep ... under the wall' noted by Costello (1903, 9) was not located. An earthwork (GA057-102----) lay c. 50m to NE. (CUCAP BDN 81) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Updated by: Olive Alcock Date of revised upload: 9 August 2016

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What survives
Recorded monument

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