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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Dromeliagh

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Fairy forts are human buildings misread as fantasy, and Dromeliagh is no exception: a roughly circular rath, thirty-three metres across, cut into flat, poorly-drained pasture beside a field boundary. Its scarped edge and shallow external fosse still mark the shape of a small defended or enclosed home, while the nettled dip at the east may have been its entrance. People lived there, worked there, and stopped coming; the landkeeping forgot the purpose but never erased the circle.
Situated in poorly-drained, flat pasture, immediately E of a field boundary. Indicated on the 1923 OS 6-inch map as a circular enclosure truncated to W by a field boundary. The monument consists of a roughly circular area (33m E-W; 29m N-S) defined by a scarped edge (Wth 4.9m; H 0.65m) with an external fosse (Wth 1.7m; ext. H 0.1m). There is a gentle dip in the scarp at E, covered in nettles, which may represent an entrance. The fosse appears to have been widened recently at SSE. The interior is uneven and dips slightly to the centre. Compiled by: Denis Power Date of upload: 14 June 2013

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.

What survives
Recorded monument

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