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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Ballywilliam South

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Ballywilliam South was already a marked circular enclosure when the 1841 survey showed it, yet ploughs and boundary work have reduced much of that shape to a low earthen bank, a shallow ditch and a semicircular scarped annex reaching into marshy ground. What remains is not grand, but exact enough to imagine: a home, trap, meeting place or child's climbing ring set among limestone and pasture. The lost part may have been forgotten gradually, one furrow at a time, until only the end marked by a boulder and a gap wide enough for a cart still gave the circle away.
In pasture, on gentle SE-facing slope, in area of outcropping limestone. Monument, depicted as embanked circular enclosure (diam. c. 40m) on 1841 OS 6-inch map, has been partially levelled. Surviving section of enclosing element is earthen bank (int. H 0.4m; ext. H 0.9m) SW->NE, with external fosse (Wth 2m; D 0.2m) SW->W. Bank, best preserved W->NNE, becomes quite linear SW->W. Bank is truncated by field boundary at SW end; a limestone boulder marks other end at NE. Gap in bank (Wth 4m) at NNW. Interior, under pasture, slopes down gently to SE. Semicircular annex (30m N-S; 19m E-W), defined by scarped edge (H 0.25m; Wth 1m) extends to E into marshy area. Compiled by: Denis Power Date of upload: 26 August 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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