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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Ballintava

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Thirty-five metres of vanished earth circle the western slope at Ballintava, its southern bank still shadowing the grass while field walls chew through the eastern and western edges. The northern half has surrendered entirely to soil and forgetting, leaving only a broken arc where a complete fort once stood. People may have lived inside that ring before the land swallowed it, their footsteps erased but the shape of their choice preserved in the remaining curve.
On W-facing slope of a low hill in the grounds of Ballintava House. Poorly preserved originally circular rath (D 35m) defined by a bank and external fosse from SE through S to SW, outside of which are traces of a possible outer bank overlain by a field wall. Another field wall cuts the monument at E and W and no visible surface trace survives to N of it. There is a CBG (GA005-016001-) immediately to E. A ringfort (GA005-012----) lies c. 170m to SW. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). Date of upload: 05 August 2010

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What survives
Recorded monument

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