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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Bigisland

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

No visible entrance, no marked gate, only a buried oval ditch and a grassy dome sixty metres long. The fort hid in plain sight, refusing measurement until satellites passed overhead. What humans built or abandoned there has vanished into soil and memory, leaving behind a shape large enough to circle but small enough to forget.
Situated on a rise in a low-lying landscape. It is not depicted on any OS 6-inch map but it is visible on aerial photographs (GSIAP: N 306, 307) from the 1970s. In 1985 (SMR file) this was an oval and domed (H 1.6m), grass-covered area (dims 61m N-S; 45m E-W) defined by a fosse (at S: Wth of top 3m; int. D 0.8m; ext. D 0.3m; at N: Wth of top 5m; int. D 0.9m; ext. D 0.3m). An entrance is not identified, but the interior has some grass-covered quarries. The interior was crossed by a NE-SW field bank just SE of the centre with a drain on the NW side. The visible had been removed by 1995 (OSAP) but the cropmark is visible on some aerial series (OSAP 2017; Digital Globe c. 2013). 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. See the attached view from OSAP (2017) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 9 August 2019

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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