What is recorded here

A rough D-shaped ringfort stands on a Clare hill, its flat-topped platform rising nearly two metres above a surrounding fosse. The straight southern edge and western berm suggest deliberate building rather than accidental earthwork, while the missing eastern section hints that people once entered and left the space repeatedly. It may have been a home, a boundary marker, or a place where neighbours argued about ownership under open sky. The fairies keep the name only because humans forgot the names of the people who shaped the earth.

On top of a hill in rough pastureland; the land slopes immediately to the W. Depicted as a circular hachured enclosure on the 1840 and 1916 eds. of the OS 6-inch maps. Listed as ‘enclosure’ in the RMP (1996). A roughly D-shaped rath (26.8m E-W; 26.7m N-S) with a straight S edge (L 14m) is surrounded by a fosse; traces of an outer bank are visible from SW to W. The rath is defined by a flat-topped platform that slopes towards the E; its height above the fosse varies from N (H 1.3m) to E (H 0.9m) to W (H 1.9m). There is a berm (Wth 0.8-1m) between its base and the inner edge of the fosse at W. The flat-bottomed fosse (Wth 1.5-2m; D 0.2-0.9) survives all round except at ENE where there is a wide modern ramped gap (Wth 0.8m) through it. A silted-up leat or drain extends from it at NW. The outer bank (Wth 0.8m; ext. H 0.2m) is also flat topped. Compiled by: Olive Alcock and Lynda McCormack Date of upload: 25 April 2022

A fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Ballybaun is a circular earthwork enclosure, likely dating to the early medieval period, associated with both ancient settlement and later folklore surrounding fairies and otherworldly beings. It appears on early Ordnance Survey maps and was noted as an 'enclosure' in the 1996 Record of Monuments and Places.

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