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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Diamor

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Half a kilometre of forgotten life still stands in Diamor: a broad earthen ring, a berm, an outer bank, a southern gap, and three radial banks stretching to a much larger curving enclosure. People may have lived inside the small fort, worked the wide outer ground, and cut edges for stone or soil, while later tongues called the remains a fairy fort because shape and age resist ordinary explanation.
Situated on a knoll which is the summit of a N-S ridge. This is a raised oval, and partly quarried area (dims c. 36m NNE-SSW; c. 22m E-W) defined by an earthen bank (Wth of base 10-11m; int. H 0.4m; ext. H 3.6-4.2m) which melds into the slope externally. At its base is a berm (Wth 1.5m) with an outer earthen bank (at WSW: Wth of base 3.5m; int. H 1.2m; ext. H 1m at N to 2.4m at W) S-W-NE, but the bank is absent NE-S where only the berm (at SE: Wth 2m) is present. There is an entrance through the inner and outer banks at S. At the base of hillock (23m distant and 4m lower at N) is a curving scarp (Wth 2.5-4.5m; H 1.2-1.4m) SSW-N-NE that morphs into a field bank and hedge ENE-SE but is absent SE-SSW. This forms a large subcircular enclosure (dims c. 95m E-W; 85m N-S), and three radial banks connect the outer bank of the rath with the scarp of the large enclosure at SW, W and NNW. An original entrance is not identified. Another fragment of an enclosure defined by an arc (Chord c. 40m NNW-SSE) of a low bank and fosse is attached to the S of the large enclosure and may be the remnant of a field system. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 9 January 2019

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What survives
Recorded monument

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