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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Ballylongford

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Ballylongford is the rare place where a large circular fort disappeared completely. The fort was about thirty metres across and stood on a terrace above the Maigue River. People built it, lived around it and forgot it. A farm track crosses the flat ground where its bank once rose. The earth did not vanish in a night. It yielded gradually to carts, ploughs and patience. What is gone is not nothing. It is the shape of human time, pressing through soil until even memory becomes difficult to find.
In pasture, on terrace in ground sloping down to SE towards Maigue River. Monument, depicted as embanked circular enclosure (diam. c. 30m) on 1923 OS 6-inch map, has been levelled. No trace of monument evident when inspected. Field boundaries in vicinity of site have been removed. A farm trackway crosses area of site. Compiled by: Denis Power Date of upload: 26 August 2011

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.

What survives
Recorded monument

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