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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Gortnaraheen

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Gortnaraheen holds a thirty-four-metre earthen ring on a slight Galway rise, its two banks and central ditch still tracing a boundary that human hands forgot but the land remembers. Trees have claimed the inner bank while modern cuts opened the east, yet the curve persists through southern soil like a breath held beneath grass. Perhaps it was a home, a refuge or a marker for seasons now lost. The fairy fort name suggests people once saw more than ruin there, and wondering remains better than erasing what the earth still shapes.
On a slight rise in undulating farmland. Poorly preserved circular rath (diam. 34m) defined by two banks and an intervening fosse. The inner bank, which is planted with trees, is visible from ESE through S to SW; elsewhere a scarp forms the enclosing element. The fosse and outer bank survive from ESE through S to NNW. A gap at E appears to be modern. There is a silage pit in the NE quadrant of the interior. Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG Date of upload: 4 January 2018

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

What survives
Recorded monument

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