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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Carrowkeel (ballymoe By.)

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Flaherty's Fort in Carrowkeel is a subcircular earthen ringfort, measuring fifty metres across, where two banks and a central ditch still mark the boundary on a north-facing slope. The southern edge has faded into the grassland, leaving only a faint trace of the ditch, while a later field bank covers the outer wall on the northern side. People may have lived inside this simple circle before the land changed, but the earth has kept the shape while taking the names of those who built it.
On N-facing slope of a rise in low-lying grassland. Known locally as 'Flaherty's Fort' (Neary 1914, 116, no. 91), this subcircular rath (N-S 50.5m, E-W 49m), in fair condition, is defined by two banks and an intervening fosse. No visible surface trace of the enclosing elements survives from ESE through S to W, apart from a short section of the fosse from ESE to SSE. A field bank overlies the outer bank from NW to NE. An enclosure (GA017-036----) lies c. 300m to ESE. 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

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What survives
Recorded monument

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