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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Baile An Liaigh

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Mortons and others may have lived inside the circular earthworks, but the fort still belongs to memory as much as history. Its bank rises no higher than a person standing upright, yet it encloses enough room for gardens, tools and children running past the entrance. The fairies keep what people forgot, and they preserve the shape of human life by refusing to let it disappear.
Internal diam. 27.5m. This circular univallate rath is located on a gentle S facing slope on the E side of the valley that extends SE from Coumaleague Hill to Ventry Harbour. The earthen enclosing bank is a maximum of 1.6m high and c. 4m wide at base. The entrance was probably located in the SE sector where the bank has been replaced by a stone wall. The interior is occupied by a series of cultivation ridges, and an earth and stone mound in the centre may consist of clearance debris. The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 301. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 6 August 2013

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What survives
Recorded monument

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