Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Ballywilliam (castletownarra Par.),landsdown

Situated on a W-facing slope of rising ground in an upland area overlooking Lough Derg to the W. An old laneway leads up to a large circular area (diam. 50m N-S) enclosed by a tree-lined earth and stone bank (Wth 0.5m; int. H 0.3m; ext. H 1.5-2m) and wide external flat-bottomed fosse (Wth 3m). No entrance feature visible. A nineteenth-century farmhouse is built into the W face of the enclosure with external stone-facing of bank best visible at E. This may have been a ringfort reused as a garden feature for the nineteenth-century house and later planted with evergreen trees. The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 22 September 2008