What is recorded here

Half the Gortakeeghan ringfort still stands on the ridge, a flat-topped earthen bank circling an oval space, while the other half vanished under a modern field boundary. The surviving edge marks where human hands shaped the slope before the land was taken back for farming. What remains feels less like a ruin than a threshold, as if the fort refused to disappear completely and simply stopped being visible.

Situated on the W facing slope at the W end of an E-W ridge with the half of the monument incorporated into Gortakeeghan wood. This is an oval area (max. dim. c. 27m), defined on the N, S and E sides by a flat topped earthen bank (H c. 1.2m) and an external fosse (Wth c. 2.5m). A modern field boundary, aligned NNE-SSW, cuts through the centre. West of this field boundary the monument has been removed although there are still slight traces of the fosse (CRDS 1998, 33). Archaeological testing (06E0234) in an extensive area just to the W produced no related material (Lynch 2009). Date of upload: 14 April 2011 Amended: 14 January 2020

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.