What is recorded here

Fairy forts are not forts at all: they are circular exclusion zones, places where human activity stopped because something else moved in. Under that idea, Gortavehy East becomes a boundary marker. The visible ring may be the human part, the underground passage the hidden continuation, and the nearby ringfort the last ordinary place before the exception began. People may have avoided the center, not the whole hill.

In pasture, on NE-facing slope. Circular area (36.4m N-S; 36m E-W) enclosed by earthen bank (H 0.9m); external fosse (max. D 1.2m) SW->NW. Bank topped by stone field boundary SE->SSW; gaps to N and ENE. Man-made underground passage (9038) in interior. Ringfort (8330) lies c. 100m to S. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 3: Mid Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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