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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Ballybrowney Lower

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Three earthen banks still circle Ballybrowney Lower, pierced by gaps and causeways that invite entry rather than warn against it. The ringfort sits on a gentle slope above the Bride river, its outer bank fading into a field fence to the east. A rectangular structure formed by radial banks at the north-east may have been a chapel, but the main fort remains a place of lived human choice: build a boundary, leave holes in it, and trust the causeway to carry people through.
In tillage on gentle SE-facing slope, overlooking Bride river. Circular area (38m N-S; 38.5m E-W) defined by three earthen banks with intervening fosses. Inner bank (int. H 0.8m; ext. H 1.3m) and middle bank (H 1.6m) pierced by gaps to N (Wth 6m inner bank; 4m middle bank) and ESE (Wth 5m inner bank; 8m middle bank), with causeways; gap in inner bank (Wth 5m) toW. Outer bank survives S->NW; replaced by field fence to E. To NNE, two radial banks run across gap between inner and middle bank, forming with the ringfort banks a rectangular structure (7.5m x 6.5m) pierced by gap (Wth 2.5m) cut through middle bank; possibly remains of R.C. chapel marked as 'site of' on 1842 OS 6-inch map. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 2: East and South Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1994). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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What survives
Recorded monument

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