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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Gortnaclogh (muskerry West By.)

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Muskerry people called it a fairy fort, yet the measurements describe a human dwelling: thirty metres across, a deep fosse, a causeway entrance, and trees growing through the inner bank. The fairies may have taken it later, but the digging and carrying belonged to people who wanted a defensible home on an east-facing slope. They built a boundary the land could not easily erase, then disappeared into the ordinary chaos of history. The earth still holds the shape of their decision.
In pasture, on E-facing slope. Circular area (29.85m N-S; 29.8m E-W) enclosed by earthen bank (int. H 1.55m) with intervening fosse and outer earthen bank (H 0.25m) surviving to E. Inner bank planted with trees. Outer bank barely discernible to NE and S. Entrance (Wth 4.25m) to E, with causeway. 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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What survives
Recorded monument

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