What is recorded here

Fairy forts are not fantasy; they are abandoned human settlements misnamed because people stopped understanding them. Cloonty is a true ringfort: a level grass circle, earthen bank, outer ditch and an eastern entrance, with straight and curving ditch lines extending north and south across the pasture. The fairies enter only in the naming, not the shape.

In gently undulating pasture. Circular area (30.6m N-S; 30.6m E-W) enclosed by earthen bank (int. H 0.7m; ext. H 1.5m) with external fosse (D 0.5m; Wth 1.5m). Causeway entrance (Wth 4m) at E; cattle breaks at ENE, NE and SW. Interior level and under grass. Linear extension of fosse to N (L 23.7m; D 0.35m; Wth 2.2m) with low earthen bank along each side (H 0.2m), terminates at E-W field boundary. Similar profiled extension of fosse to S (L 30m) but following gentle S curve. Extending N from close to SE corner of enclosure is low earthen bank (L 54m; H 0.25m; Wth 1m); at S end this meets similar low earthen bank (L 15m) travelling E-W, from which another similar bank travels S (L 28m) slightly to W of line of former bank. Compiled by: Denis Power Date of upload: 26 August 2011

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