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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Coolroe More

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Fairy forts are human inventions: rings of earth and memory that locals dressed up as magic because they predated living memory. Coolroe More keeps one such ring on a north-facing slope, about twenty-five metres across, with a low scarp running west to east and a field boundary taking the place of the remaining bank. Briars and uneven ground fill the inside now, but the shape still reads as a made place rather than a heap of stones. Perhaps it marked a household, a boundary dispute, or a small refuge; the earth remembers the decision even when the names have left.
In pasture, on N-facing slope. Depicted as hachured circular enclosure (diam. c. 25m) on 1842, 1904 and 1937 OS 6-inch maps; S half incorporated into field boundary system on 1904 and 1937 OS 6-inch maps. Circular area (29.1m N-S) defined by scarp (H 1.05m) W->E; field boundary on line of bank elsewhere with drainage ditch to outside. Interior surface appears to be uneven; overgrown with briars. Bowman (1934, 245) records single-ramparted fort (diam. c. 27yd; bank 2 to 4ft H) on P. O'Callaghan's land; fosse infilled. 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.

What survives
Recorded monument

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