Discover Alone, back to main map

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Gortnaclohy

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Forty-eight metres of packed earth still stand on the steep slope in Gortnaclohy, marking a boundary between human memory and fairy speculation. Two concentric banks and a narrow ditch enclose a level pasture where cows graze above forgotten feet. The causeway at the eastern edge invites entry, but the truncated outer wall warns that the site has already surrendered part of itself to changing fields. What was hidden there, or who hid it, has slipped into the kind of story people tell when the land refuses to explain itself.
In pasture, on break in steep E-facing slope. Circular area (diam. 48m) enclosed by two concentric earthen banks with intervening fosse (Wth 1.4m). Inner bank (int. H 0.55m; ext. H 0.7m) survives for full circuit but external bank (int. H 1.05m; ext. H .035m) survives WSW->WNW and NE->E, but is truncated by field boundary S->WSW and WNW->NE. Causeway entrance (Wth 2.4m) at ESE. Interior, which has been raised on E side to compensate for fall of ground, is under pasture and level though surface very uneven. In NW quadrant is circular raised area (diam. 17m), defined by a scarped edge (H 0.65m; Wth 2.5m), which backs up against inner face of internal bank. Compiled by: Denis Power Date of upload: 26 August 2011

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.

What survives
Recorded monument

Places near here

Add to this placeAdd a picture Comment or add a tip

Explore 1,118,481 places