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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Ballintogher

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Fairy forts are misnamed; people built them. In Ballintogher a wide earthen bank still marks the oval boundary, and a small stone-lined basin sits outside the southeast curve. The shape changed on later maps, but the earth remembers the hands that moved it.
This univallate rath appears on the 1841-42 map as a circular enclosure but by the later edition of 1914-15 its shape had been altered to oval. A bohareen runs immediately to the N. This oval area is enclosed by a low, wide earthen bank which averages 5.6m in width at the base and rises to .8m above the surrounding land and 1m above the interior. In the SE sector of the enclosing bank, on the exterior side, there is a semi-circular area, with its in-curve facing the surrounding land. It would appear to be stone lined and measures 3.6m N-S internally, .5m deep and has a 1.2m wide opening. The above description is derived from Toal C. (compiler) ‘The North Kerry Archaeological Survey’. Brandon in association with FAS Training and Employment Authority. (1995) no. 600. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 18 June 2013

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What survives
Recorded monument

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