What is recorded here

Double earthen banks still circle a forgotten workshop in Cush pasture, marking the supposed ancient cemetery of the Ernai tribe. Ó Ríordáin excavated iron slag beside a low inner wall in the 1930s, revealing that people lived and made things within what tradition calls a fairy fort. The southern bank became a field fence while the northern ditch faded, yet the fort remains the visible heart of a larger buried landscape.

In reclaimed pasture, in centre of an archaeological complex (LI048-034006/042-) located on the 'Supposed Site of Temaír Erann', which was the ancient cemetery of the Ernai tribe on Slievereagh (Sliabh Riabhach) (Westropp 1919, 9; Westropp 1917-19, 179; Westropp 1918, 111). Bivallate ringfort stands inside a large field system (LI048-034001-), ringfort (LI048-034037-) lies 30m to N and three burial mounds (LI048-034010/012-) lie to the SW. Listed as Ringfort No. 7 in the ‘Northern Group’ of forts excavated by Ó Ríordáin (1940, 128-132) between 1934-5. Monument described by Ó Ríordáin (ibid.) as follows; ‘This fort with an overall diameter of about 140 feet [42.6m] was originally double ramparted, but the inner bank had been used on the southern side as portion of the field fence and on the northern side had disappeared, though the slope of the fosse showed. The entrance was on the western side of the fort. The inner fosse of this fort was much better marked than the outer one and excavation showed that the latter was better on the southern than on the northern side, there being, indeed, only the suggestion of a fosse on the north.’ Excavations of the ringfort interior were described as following; ‘On the northern side of the fort was a line of stones, rather indefinitely suggesting the remains of a wall and on the western side of the fort we found that the inner bank had a low wall as facing on its inner side. This wall was less than 2 feet [0.6m] in height. Beside it we found a considerable amount of iron slag.’ Bivallate ringfort clearly visible as a circular shaped area (diam. c. 24m) enclosed by two banks with intervening fosse intersected at S by post-1700 field boundary running E-W on Digital Globe orthoimage taken between 2011-13 and on Google Earth orthoimages. See attached plans and photograph of wall from Ó Ríordáin and Google Earth orthoimages. Compiled by: Fiona Rooney Date of upload: 26 August 2021

A fairy fort or earthen ringfort in Cush is part of an early-medieval archaeological complex associated with the ancient cemetery of the Ernai tribe, likely dating to the 5th–10th centuries AD. Local tradition links the site to Temaír Erann, and its location on Slievereagh (Sliabh Riabhach) suggests cultural and ritual significance in early Irish history.

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