Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Ballynamuddagh

Situated on the SE edge of a low rise (259ft/79m OD), in pasture, with good views of the surrounding landscape. Depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map as a large oval-shaped earthwork. Shown on the revised 1910 ed. OS 25-inch map as a D-shaped earthwork. Monument described in 1973 as a roughly circular-shaped area (dims. 35m N-S; 30m E-W) enclosed by a bank reduced to a scarp in places and external fosse. A low earthen bank is visible from NW-N-NE and from SE-S-SW and a scarp is present elsewhere. There is a shallow external fosse visible from NW-N-NE. The interior slopes upwards from the perimeter towards the centre and the surface is uneven. Monument is visible today as a D-shaped earthwork on Digital Globe aerial photography. Compiled by Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien. Date of upload: 28 November 2019

A fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Ballynamuddagh is an early-medieval agricultural settlement, likely dating to between the 5th and 10th centuries AD. It is associated with local folklore referring to it as a dwelling place of fairies, a common belief in Irish tradition surrounding such earthworks.