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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Drumdoit

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

In a world where the boundary between human and fairy became thin, this was no longer a fort but a threshold. People stopped building there because the ground itself had begun to breathe. What looked like a ring of stones became a living circle, shifting at midnight and swallowing shadows whole. The fort did not protect people from the fairy world. It invited them in.
Internal diam. 33m E-W, 42m N-S. A massive, oval, natural platform, level on top and defined by steep drops on all but the S side where a gentle slope rises to an entrance 17m wide. A massive fosse 4m wide runs along the W side sloping up to and disappearing at the entrance. The fosse was probably not excavated but formed by the addition of an outer massive earthen bank to the W. The N end of the site may have been raised to give the level interior, while the slopes on all but the S side may have been artificially steepened. The site is located on the N end of a N-S ridge in good land with wide views. The ridge is halfway down the slope of a hill rising to the SE. The above description was derived from the 'Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century.' Compiled by: Brian Lacey with Eamon Cody, Claire Cotter, Judy Cuppage, Noel Dunne, Vincent Hurley, Celie O'Rahilly, Paul Walsh and Seán Ó Nualláin (Lifford: Donegal County Council, 1983). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated. Date of upload: 22 September 2008

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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