What is recorded here

Gortloughra holds a true ringfort, not a fairy tale, though local stories still call it a fairy fort. Its earthen bank circles thirty-one metres across an open pasture slope, breaking only at a narrow eastern gap. Cultivation ridges still cross the inside, proving people worked the land within its shadow. The fort is small enough to walk in minutes yet old enough to outlast every fence built around it.

In pasture, on NNW-facing slope. Circular area (31.5m N-S; 31.5m E-W) enclosed by earthen bank (int. H 1.4m) NNE->W; scarp (H 1.8m) W->NNE; external fosse (D 0.4m) E->SSW; silted-up fosse to W. Bank stone-faced externally to SW as result of incorporation into field fence system. Gap inbank to E (Wth 1.5m). Cultivation ridges cross interior on NNW-SSE axis. 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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