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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Ballymacowen

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Fairy forts are not fairy forts, they are human rings, and Ballymacowen was one of them: a thirty-five-metre circle on an east-facing slope above a tributary to the Argideen River. It has been levelled now, erased by plough or pride or time, but it was marked on the 1902 survey map, which means men walked that slope with chains and angles and chose to believe what they saw. The fairies got the name because people were not ready to give the dead or the forgotten much credit.
On E-facing slope, overlooking tributary to Argideen River. Marked on OS 6-inch map (1902) as circular enclosure (diam. c. 35m). Levelled, no visible surface evidence. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 1: West Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1992). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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What survives
Recorded monument

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