Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Crossanstown

Situated on SE side of a very slight rise, in gently undulating pasture with good views to NE and SE. Depicted on the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map as a suboval-shaped earthwork. Monument described as a subcircular-shaped area (dims. 35.5m E-W; 34m N-S) enclosed by a bank and external fosse. The bank is steep on the exterior and is almost reduced to a scarp, it is obscured by a field fence from SE-S and is levelled from S-SW-WSW where the monument is cut by the public road. There is a wide V-shaped fosse which is best preserved from WSW-W-WNW, is almost completely infilled from WNW-N-E-SE and is not visible from S-SW-WSW, where the inner bank may have been levelled into it. There is a possible entrance gap at NE which consists of a narrow ramp leading up to the interior. The edges of this entrance are slightly defaced and may have been modernised. The fosse is very faint at this point yet a causeway seems to be discernible. The interior has a gentle SE-facing slope and traces of cultivation ridges running E-W. There is a small, shallow subrectangular-shaped depression (max. L 6.3m NW-SE; max. Wth 3.4m NE-SW; D 0.4m) of unknown significance just inside the upper edge of the scarp at NE. Monument is visible today as a subcircular tree-lined earthwork on Digital Globe aerial photography. See attached profile of monument surveyed and drawn by the ASI. Compiled by Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien. Date of upload: 06 November 2019