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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in An Droim Thiar

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

An Droim Thiar holds one of five ringforts on Drom Hill, where a field wall now cuts through the earth and an underground passage has collapsed into a rectangular scar. The site preserves a bivallate structure with a dense overgrowth that swallows the outer bank, yet the inner edge still rises sharply beside the lost entrance. People may have built the passage to hide during storms or keep warmth from the bay wind, but the earth has taken back most of the shape. What remains is a broken circle on a ridge above Brandon Bay, marked more by absence than by grandeur.
Internal diam. c. 24m This bivallate rath with Man-made underground passage is one of 5 ringforts situated on the W side of Drom Hill, a low ridge that borders Brandon Bay between the estuary of the Owenmore river and that of the Scorid and Glennahoo rivers. The monument has been seriously modified and the present remains are densely overgrown. A field wall bisects the site NW-SE and all that remains on the NE side of this is a short stretch of the outer bank in the ESE sector. On the SW side of the field wall the banks and fosse survive only in the S quadrant, the remainder of the interior being defined by a 1.8m high scarp. The inner bank averages .8m in internal height and falls 1.4m to the base of the fosse which is 2.5m wide at base. The outer bank is up to 1.4m high internally but only .3m high externally. The Man-made underground passage was accessible within living memory but is now represented by a rectangular depression, 2m x 1.8m x 1.1m deep, which abuts the inner edge of the inner bank; fragments of its drystone facing are preserved. The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 402. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 7 August 2013

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What survives
Recorded monument

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