What is recorded here

Thirty-nine metres of packed earth and shadowed ditch circle a hidden chamber beneath Claragh Mountain. People built the fort to keep out invaders, yet they also dug a secret tunnel through the floor, perhaps escaping rain or carrying messages to the dark. The fairies never entered because human hands had already claimed the ground. They waited outside the bank until the tools stopped moving, then they took the chamber for themselves.

In rough pasture, on lower slope of NE side of Claragh Mountain at foot of precipitous rise to mountain top. Roughly circular area (39m E-W; 33m N-S) enclosed by inner earthen bank (int. H 1.8m; ext. H 3m); intervening fosse (D 0.5m) NW->ESE; outer earthen bank (max. ext. H 1.4m) NW->ESE. Inner bank grass-covered and overgrown with thinly spaced trees and bushes; external face lower (ext. H 1.4m) on upslope and stone-faced SE->NW. Causewayed entrance (Wth 3.8m) to ENE. Intervening fosse best preserved NW->NE; large concentration of small stones dumped in fosse to S of causeway. Outer bank grass-covered; lowest to NW. Interior raised on NE side to compensate for hillslope; Man-made underground passage (CO039-05302-) in interior. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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