What is recorded here

Half a century of rain and hoofprints have sanded the edge of a place that once kept something out. The fort stands twenty-five metres across at the top of a wet ridge in Ballygastell, its earthen bank still proud enough to mark the difference between inside and outside. Rushes fill the depression like green water, and the shallow ditch curves away beside it as though drawn in a hurry. People may have stood at the eastern gap, watched the valley, or simply owned the smallest possible piece of sky.

At the top of an E-W ridge in wet pasture, reeds and rushes, with land sloping steeply down to the N, moderately to the S and rising to the W. Hachured on the 1842 and 1920 eds. of the OS 6-inch map. Listed as 'Enclosure' in the RMP (1996). A subcircular rath (25.6m NNE-SSW; 25.3m WNW-ESE) defined by an earthen bank (Wth 4.4m; int. H 0.25m; ext. H 0.7m). An external fosse (Wth 2.8m; ext. D 0.2m) is traceable from SW to SE. At the N and S the bank is reduced to a scarp (H 0.4m). There is a possible entrance gap (Wth 2.2m) in the bank at the SE. The rush-covered interior slopes gently to the N. The following image has been uploaded: CL008-056----_01.jpg View from W Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Conn Herriott Date of upload: 12 October 2022

A fairy fort or earthen ringfort in Ballygastell is a circular earthwork likely dating to the early medieval period, used as a defensive or agricultural settlement. It is associated with local folklore regarding fairy activity, common in such sites across Ireland.

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