What is recorded here

Conjoined ringfort in Glannahary, County Carlow: a 24m circular area inside a much larger oval of massive stone-faced bank and deep wide fosse. The inner fort has a low spread-out bank with a gap at the northwest, suggesting two defences were joined and later shaped into one broad landscape feature. People may have lived behind the smaller ring, worked the land around the greater oval, or simply remembered the place as a fairy fort because its scale still feels larger than ordinary housing.

The following description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Carlow' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 17 July 2007 Shown on 1839 'OS 6-inch' map as conjoined ringfort. Present remains consist of circular area (diam. 24m) defined by low spread-out bank (H c. 0.7m) with gap at NW and enclosed in large oval area defined by very high well-defined massive stone-faced bank (int. H 2m) and deep wide external fosse (base Wth 3m). Appears to have been a conjoined ringfort which was later adapted into massive landscape feature.

A fairy fort or earthen ringfort in Glannahary is a circular earthen enclosure typical of early-medieval settlement in Ireland, likely dating to between the 5th and 10th centuries AD. Local tradition associates such sites with fairy folk, and they were often avoided for fear of disturbing supernatural inhabitants.

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