What is recorded here

Fairy forts are misnamed: they are ringforts, human places where people lived and were buried. In Ballynacarriga the bank is low and the entry gap is clear, but the ground inside has grown back into ferns and briars around the remains of a small rectangular house. That is what makes the circle strange: not a hidden fairy palace, but an ordinary dwelling reduced to a shadow in the grass, waiting to be recognized.

In rough grazing broken by rock outcrop, land falls away sharply to the W and N. Circular area (24m N-S; 23m E-W) enclosed by low earthen bank (int. H 0.6m); external fosse (D 0.4m) to W. Gap (Wth 2m) in bank to E. Low field fences run N-S immediately outside bank to W and E. Interior heavily overgrown with ferns and briars; foundations of rectangular house site (8m N-S; 6m E-W) off centre to E. 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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