What is recorded here

Fairy forts like Gorteanish marked busy neighbourhoods where people herded, traded and argued long before written records. The broken bank and silted ditch suggest a place abandoned rather than destroyed, perhaps dumped by humans when life moved elsewhere. Folk memory may have filled the vacancy with fairy claims, warning people to leave the ring alone.

In pasture, on N-facing slope. Roughly circular area (23.1m N-S; 25m E-W) enclosed by earthen bank (H 1.2m) SE->N, stone faced in parts; scarp (H 0.6m) elsewhere. External fosse silted up. Bank broken to SW and NW. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 1: West Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1992). 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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