What is recorded here

Fairy fort in Caherbarnagh, County Cork: a 40-metre earthen ring on a north-facing pasture slope, with a deep outside ditch, a second earth-and-stone bank, and a causewayed entrance to the north-northeast. People may have lived there, herded there, or kept something back from the field; the names leave room for all three. The local story calls it a fairy fort, which is not a joke but a warning about shape: small enough to enter, strong enough to resist forgetting.

In pasture, on N-facing slope. Circular area (40.6m E-W; 39.4m N-S) enclosed by substantial earthen bank (int. H 2.4m) with deep external fosse; second bank composed of earth and stone E->N. Entrance (Wth 3.6m) to NNE, with causeway; evidence for stone facing on E side. Possible Man-made underground passage (8968) in interior. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 3: Mid Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

A fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Caherbarnagh is a circular early-medieval defensive or domestic site, characterized by a large earthen bank and ditch, suggesting use between the 5th and 10th centuries. Local tradition associates such sites with fairy folk, and they were often avoided due to beliefs in their supernatural inhabitants.

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