Discover Alone, back to main map

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Ballinena

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Fairy forts are human ringforts misnamed because people stopped remembering they were human. In Ballinena, two earthen banks still trace an oval pasture, cut by a field boundary as if ownership itself forgot the shape. The western bank rises seventy centimetres, tall enough to mark a threshold but not a wall, inviting wonder rather than fear.
In pasture, on gentle W-facing slope. Oval area (38.5m NW-SE; 31.2m NE-SW) enclosed by two concentric earthen banks with intervening fosse (Wth 2.4m). Inner bank (int. H 0.25m; ext. H 0.4m) grades to a scarped edge (H 0.45m; Wth 2m) E->N, but outer bank (int. H 0.35m; ext. H 0.25m) evident all round. Greatest external bank height of outer bank is at WSW (H 0.7m). Enclosure is dissected by field boundary travelling on NW-SE axis (approx. two-thirds of enclosure lies NE of boundary). Interior slopes down to W and is under pasture. Compiled by: Denis Power Date of upload: 26 August 2011

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

What survives
Recorded monument

Places near here

Add to this placeAdd a picture Comment or add a tip

Explore 1,118,481 places