What is recorded here

Fairy forts are often called forts because they look like abandoned military works, but the name suggests something else: a place where the boundary between people and hidden life became thin. In Ballyengland Lower the earth still marks that idea, an oval bank and ditch set into a north-facing slope beside an ordinary farmyard. The broken section where the bank and fosse disappeared may have been made by people seeking entry, not escape. What they entered is no longer written, but the shape remains, waiting to be imagined.

In pasture, on N-facing slope; immediately NW of farmyard. Oval area (24.6m N-S; 31.5m E-W) enclosed by earthen bank (int. H 0.9m; ext. H 2.65m) and external fosse (D 1m; Wth 1.7m). Bank is best preserved SW->N, but has been lowered by erosion N->ESE. Bank and fosse removed SE->SSW to allow access to interior from farmyard. Fosse is best preserved along W arc, but is truncated by field walls at SSW and NNE. Level interior, covered by mature deciduous trees, is now used as domestic dump, particularly SW quadrant. A narrow trench (6.5m N-S; 1.1m E-W; D 0.6m) at SE corner of interior is probably associated with farmyard. Compiled by: Denis Power Date of upload: 26 August 2011

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