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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Baltrasna (fore By.)

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Mud and muscle built a shallow circle on a Meath hillock, perhaps a home, perhaps a marker for the dead. A causeway still bridges the gap at the northeast, inviting entry into a space where a smaller inner ring suggests a hut or hearth at the centre. The quarry has taken the eastern edge, and grass has swallowed the rest, but the shape remains: a room without walls, waiting to be remembered.
Situated on a prominent hillock in an undulating low-lying landscape. This is an overgrown circular area (diam. 32m WNW-ESE, 29m NNE-SSW) defined by an earthen bank (at WNW: Wth of base 3.5m; int. H 0.2m; ext. H 1m) and an outer fosse (at WNW: Wth of top 4m; ext. D 0.2m) SSE-W-ENE, but the bank is reduced to a scarp (at ESE: H 1.3m) and the fosse is absent ENE-SSE where the rath is highest internally. There is an entrance (Wth of base 2m) and causeway (Wth of top 2.4m; H 0.45m) at NE. At the centre is a hut-site (diam. 5.1-5.3m) defined by a slight earthen bank (Wth 0.7-1m; H 0.2m) but there is no evidence of an entrance. It has become overgrown since 1969 (OSAP) and the edge of a quarry comes right to the edge of the monument E-S-W. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 21 November 2018

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What survives
Recorded monument

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