What is recorded here

Fairy forts are misnamed: ringforts are human, built and abandoned, while fairy forts are hollow places where the displacement happens. In Baltovin the ringfort was recorded in 1841, still standing in 1898 with a lime kiln inside it, visible from the air in 1977, and gone afterwards. The facts do not say when it stopped existing or what removed it. A circular boundary marked on maps, then absent from the land, is not a lost archive. It is a place that withdrew.

This circular enclosure is marked on the 1841-42 and 1898 OS maps and on the later edition a lime kiln is situated in the N sector of the interior. The site also shows up on the Geological Survey of Ireland's aerial photographs (1977) but it has since been levelled and no surface trace survives today. The above description is derived from C. Toal, ‘North Kerry Archaeological Survey’. Dingle. Brandon in association with FAS Training and Employment Authority (1995), no. 735. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 2 August 2013

A fairy fort or earthen ringfort in Baltovin is a circular early-medieval defensive or agricultural enclosure, likely dating to between the 5th and 10th centuries. The site is associated with local folklore surrounding fairies and other supernatural beings, common in Irish tradition for such earthworks.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.