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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Cahernashilleeny

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Two earth rings press into the Galway slope, one tucked inside the other like a secret kept from ploughs. The larger ring still shows its double bank and hollow ditch, while the smaller fades into grass and memory. They may have held a family, a herdsman or a child who played at being a king. The field cut through them later, but the shape remains, waiting for someone to walk its edge and imagine the life that made it.
On a gentle E-facing slope in grassland. Very poorly preserved conjoined ringfort. The N rath (E-W 42m, N-S 37m), subcircular in plan, is defined by a degraded bank. The S example (E-W 51, N-S 48m), also subcircular in plan, is defined by two banks and an intervening fosse. Traces of the inner bank and fosse are visible from SW through W to NW. The outer bank survives from SE through S to W. A field bank cuts the monument at SE and SW. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). Date of upload: 05 August 2010

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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