What is recorded here

Fairy forts are earthen rings people built and abandoned before records began. This one in Castleshane Demesne is a circular bank and shallow ditch about twenty-five metres across, hidden in deciduous woodland on a drumlin ridge in County Monaghan. It has no visible entrance, which suggests the opening was never a gate but a forgotten edge of human use. The fairies may have inherited it later, but the shape and setting point to people who lived there long before the name changed.

Situated just off the crest of a N-S drumlin ridge on the E side. It is depicted as a circular hachured feature in woodland only on the 1907 edition of the OS 6-inch map. This is a circular area (diam. 25m N-S; 24.8m E-W) that slopes down to the E within deciduous woodland defined by an earthen bank (at W: Wth of base 3.3m; int. H 1.1m; ext. H 1.3m) with an external fosse or drain (at W: Wth of top 1.5m; Wth of base 0.6m; ext. D 0.65m). There is no identifiable original entrance. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Monaghan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 23 February 2018

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