What is recorded here

Fairy fort in Ballygrace, County Cork: a circular earthwork about 25 metres across on an NE-facing slope, mapped in 1842, 1905 and 1937, but levelled around 1980. The field boundary still curves to respect it, a drain was cut on the west side, and barley grows thinner and lower where the old enclosure lay. People may have lived there, or feared what the fairies kept inside; either way the land remembered the shape long after the soil was taken.

In tillage on NE-facing slope. Depicted as hachured circular enclosure (diam. c. 25m) on 1842, 1905 and 1937 OS 6-inch maps. According to local information, levelled c. 1980. Area of site defined by bare and low patches of barley. Field boundary abutting E side of monument on 1905 and 1937 OS 6-inch maps survives; curves to respect site with large drain dug on W side. Cropmark of fosse visible in aerial photograph (CASAP) S->NW; although fosse not visible to N, outline of enclosure visible as area of interior is lighter in colour than surrounding field. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

A fairy fort or earthen ringfort in Ballygrace, likely dating to the early medieval period, was depicted on several 19th- and early 20th-century Ordnance Survey maps before being levelled around 1980. Local tradition associates such sites with fairy lore, often regarded as the dwellings of supernatural beings.

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