What is recorded here

Fairy forts are earthen rings people built and reused across centuries, often around rock or shallow soil. In Butlersgrange the ring stands about fifty metres across, with a bank, a broad ditch trace and a slight inward slope. Call it a fairy fort if you like, but more likely it is a human fort, farm defence or boundary marker from the remote past. The fairies are the part people invented later to explain why the shape still stands.

The following description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Carlow' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 17 July 2007 Monument No. HM00324, this monument was entered in the Register of Historic Monuments on the 01 July 1982. Circular area (diam. c. 50m) surrounded by bank with traces of large broad fosse. Interior slopes towards centre. Entrance not identifiable.

A fairy fort or earthen ringfort in Butlersgrange is a likely early-medieval agricultural or defensive site, typical of the ringforts found throughout Ireland. Local tradition associates such sites with fairy folklore, suggesting they were inhabited by supernatural beings or were places to be avoided for fear of magical interference.

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