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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Ardbraccan,tankardstown (navan Lower By.)

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Ardbraccan holds a broken D-shaped ring where a field bank cut through the ancient earth. The western scar still stands eighteen inches high while the eastern half vanished beneath cereal crops and forgotten feet. People called it a fairy fort because humans stopped remembering its true purpose. What they built there is gone, but the fairies inherited the vacancy and populate the darkness left behind.
Situated on a rise in a landscape sloping down gently to the N. It is depicted as an oval embanked enclosure (ext. dims c. 35m N-S; c. 25m E-W) bisected by a N-S field bank and townland boundary on the 1836 edition of the OS 6-inch map where it is described as a ‘Fort’ and as a hachured feature only on the W (Tankardstown) side on the 1912 edition. This was described in 1969 (SMR file) as a D-shaped grass-covered area (dims 37.5m NNE-SSW; 16m WNW-ESE) defined by a scarp (at W: Wth 1.7m; H 1.8m) SSW-W-NNE. It is cut at E by a N-S field bank (Wth 3m; H 0.9m) and hedge which is also the townland boundary. There was no evidence of the enclosure on the E side of the field bank. Nor was there any evidence of a fosse or original entrance. It has been planted frequently in cereal crops since 1995 (OSAP). Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 16 April, 2019

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

What survives
Recorded monument

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