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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Derrylane (tullyhunco By.)

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Two thick earthen banks still circle a wide waterlogged ditch in Derrylane, enclosing a raised ground space broad enough for forty-nine paces across. The outer bank has largely vanished except toward the north, while the inner bank keeps a large gap at the south-east that may have been the entrance. People called it a fairy fort, perhaps because its shape seemed to belong less to human planning than to imagination. It may have been a household, a shelter or a boundary marker, but the ditch and banks still hold the shape of lives that no longer speak.
Raised circular area (int. diam. 49m) enclosed by two substantial earthen banks with a wide, deep, waterlogged intermediate fosse. Outer bank survives only from N-NNE. Fosse has been infilled from NE-SE. Large break in inner bank at SSE possibly represents original entrance. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1995). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 22 December 2008

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What survives
Recorded monument

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