What is recorded here

Forty years of ploughing erased the fairy fort in Baile An Bhogaigh, but the earth remembers the shape of what it swallowed. A twenty-metre circle of packed soil and shadow stood on the slope, watching the stream valley breathe below. The fairies never lived there at all. They waited for humans to build the fort, then left when the humans stopped believing. The field wall that cut through its southern edge did not damage the ring. It completed the circuit, closing the door the fairies had left open.

Internal diam. 20m This univallate rath was located on a SE facing slope overlooking the stream valley which extends S to Aghnalack. It was destroyed in 1984. The roughly circular interior was enclosed by a single earthen bank and fosse. Where best preserved, the fosse was 1.5m deep and 4m wide, but it disappeared completely along the SE sector. The bank was a maximum of 1.5m high internally and 1.75m high externally and was c. 1.25m wide. Some stone facing was evident on the outer face of the bank in the NW sector. The bank suffered some damage when the E-W field boundary, which abutted its S side, was removed. The gaps at SE and NE appeared to be secondary features but there was no other evidence for an entrance. However, the entrance may have been blocked, perhaps by one of the 4 field walls which radiated out from the site. The only visible feature in the interior was a N-S ridge, flanked on either side by a depression, which extended from the centre to the bank at N. The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 612. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 7 August 2013

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.