What is recorded here
Fairy forts are not fairy forts. They are human ringforts, misnamed because people stopped remembering the hands that built them. This one in Ballynakill Big is a shallow circular scar in flat pasture, no more than half a metre high, with a possible gap on the east side where someone once entered. The bank has worn thin, but the shape remains: a room without walls, making the field admit it was not empty.
On flat pasture in undulating countryside. Roughly circular raised platform (dims. 32m N-S; ext. H 0.5m) enclosed by a poorly preserved low bank which in some places has been reduced to a scarp with possible entrance gap (Wth 3m) at E.
The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
Date of upload: 23 May 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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