What is recorded here

Fairy fort in Ballygortagh is a circular earthen ringfort on a bluff above a small stream, preserving a broad inner bank, deep outer fosse and partial outer bank around a grassy centre nearly thirty-three metres across. People shaped that ground into a defensible home or marker long before modern fields crossed it, then retreated from the centre while the ridge still stands against forgetting. The name fairy fort belongs to folklore rather than measurement, yet it fits the place because the ring excludes more than it contains.

Located on a bluff at the bottom of an E-facing slope with a small W-E section of a stream c. 20m to the S. This is raised circular and grass-covered area (diam. 33.5m NE-SW; 32m NW-SE) defined by the lip of a scrub-covered earthen bank (at NW: Wth of base 6.5m; int. H 0.2m; ext. H 1.3m) that is largely reduced to a scarp (at SE: Wth 2.8m; H 1.4m), and an outer fosse (Wth of top 7.5-7.8m; ext. H 0.6m at NW to 1.3m at SE). An outer bank (at SE: Wth of base 5m; ext. H 0.7m) only survives ESE-WSW. The entrance through the inner (Wth of base 3m) and outer (Wth of base 5m) banks is at SE. The fosse has been deepened and incorporates a field drain SW-WSW. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 26 August 2019

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