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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Gortroche

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

No fairies are recorded there, though people may have believed the hidden chamber under the hill was theirs. The fort is an earthen ring in Gortroche, County Cork, with a broken bank, a shallow fosse and a stone-faced edge beside four fields. It is the kind of place where human hands made a boundary, and story later filled the gap left behind.
In pasture, atop hill, at junction of four fields. Circular area (25m N-S; 23m E-W) defined by earthen bank (int. H 1.05m; ext. H 2.55m) SE->NNE; short section of fosse (D 0.25m) survives to N for c. 6m. Bank heavily overgrown; stone facing on external face of bank to N, similar to stone field boundary extending W from NW bank. Small break in bank to NNE. External fosse, hachured SW->NW on 1935 OS 6-inch map, no longer survives. Interior raised and slopes down to S; E side truncated by N-S field boundary with drain running along W side. Field boundary not inspected for remains of bank and fosse, due to hostile animal. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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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