What is recorded here

Fairy forts are human places misnamed because people stopped asking questions. Ballyadeen is not a castle, not a palace and not a mystery chamber. It is a small earthen enclosure in pasture, with a low bank, a shallow outer ditch and a stone quern set into the inside. That means people lived there, ate there, argued there and were forgotten. The fairy label is not wonder. It is a warning about human laziness.

In pasture, on gentle S-facing slope. Roughly circular area (33m E-W; 27m N-S) defined by low rise (int. H 0.2m; ext. H 0.25m) E->N, with barely preceptable trace of external fosse (D 0.1m); earthen field boundary respects line of enclosure elsewhere and may incorporate bank. Earthen material, probably from field clear, dumped against each side of field boundary in area of enclosure. Saddle quern, partially embedded in inner face of bank to N; consists of sandstone boulder (0.5m by 0.4m) with hollow in upper surface (0.3m by 0.35m). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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