Discover Alone, back to main map

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Beal East

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Beal East holds a thirty-nine metre earthen ring where a vanished village likely breathed, birthed and buried people before memory failed. The eastern bank has surrendered to ploughs and time, leaving only a gentle slope, yet the southern edge still carries an inner ridge and three gaps admit shadow or rain. A stone-lined well waits outside the southeast curve, ready to give water or take it back. Fairy fort is the name people gave when human purpose disappeared, but the shape still belongs to hands that built it for living.
Internal diameter 33m N-S, 39m E-W This roughly circular area is enclosed by an earthen bank. To the E the bank has been levelled and all that remains is a gentle slope towards the interior. Elsewhere the earthen enclosing bank is 1.2m high externally and c .8m high internally. On the interior side of the S bank is another earthen bank extending W-E for 38m in total and measuring .5m externally and .5m above the interior. There is a distance of 3m between this bank and the outer enclosing bank. Three gaps NW, SW, and S measuring 2m, 1.5m and 9m respectively, provide access to the interior of the site. On the exterior side of the outer bank in the SE sector is a stone- lined well (KE002-011002-). The above description is derived from C. Toal, ‘North Kerry Archaeological Survey’. Dingle. Brandon in association with FAS Training and Employment Authority (1995), no. 159. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 2 August 2013

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

What survives
Recorded monument

Places near here

Add to this placeAdd a picture Comment or add a tip

Explore 1,118,481 places