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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Curraghfore (rosclogher By.)

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Thirty-two metres across in the low valley beside the Owenbeg, the grassy ring still holds its earthen bank though centuries of rain have softened the edge. People called it a fairy fort, perhaps because the true purpose had faded into legend while the shape remained visible in the field. Quarry holes cut into the west interior suggest humans took stone from the place long after it stopped being a home. What is left is a shallow circle in rolling ground, old enough to become mysterious and clear enough to measure.
Located in an undulating, low-lying landscape at the E edge of the valley of the NNE-SSW Owenbeg River, with the stream c. 800m to the W. This is a circular grass-covered area (int. diam. 32m N-S; 30.5m E-W) defined by an overgrown earthen bank (at N: Wth 3.9m; int. H 0.55m; ext. H 1.24m) N-E-S which is reduced to an overgrown scarp (H 0.45-0.65m) elsewhere. An outer fosse is indicated by a band of lush vegetation N-S-W, while an old NE-SW stream or drain is outside the perimeter at NW. The original entrance is not identified, but there are old quarry-holes in the interior W-NW. The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim' compiled by Michael J. Moore (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2003). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 23 September 2008

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What survives
Recorded monument

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