What is recorded here

Fairy forts and fairies have nothing to do with each other. They are earthen ringforts where people lived, farmed and resisted before written records reached the place. The fort at Ballygowney stands on a hill crest with wide views along the ridge and into the valleys, its oval bank still rising above a faint surrounding ditch. Rain collects in the shallow middle, feeding reeds that sway where rooms, yards or firelight may once have been.

On the crest of a hill in rolling grassland. There are good views N and S along the ridge and across the valleys to the SE and NW. A roughly oval raised platform (diam. 35m E-W, 32m N-S; H c. 1.5-1.8m) enclosed by fosse (Wth 4m; D c. 0.3m) which survives best at S but is barely traceable on the other side. The interior is slightly dished (D c. 0.2-0.3m) and is evidently fairly wet in the winter months, with reeds growing in interior. There is an entrance (Wth c. 4m) in the SSE which has probably been widened. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 31 January 2018

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