Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Higginstown (farbill By.)

Situated in low-lying, gently undulating pasture, with views restricted where overlooked by higher ground. Depicted on the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map as a circular-shaped earthwork. Monument described in 1970-2 as a circular-shaped area (dims. 53m N-S; 51m E-W) enclosed by an inner bank, an intervening wide, deep fosse and an outer bank. The inner bank is reduced to a scarp at NE and a field boundary running NE-SW truncates the bank from ENE-SSE. The outer bank is only visible from SW-NW. An entrance gap (overall Wth 5.6m; basal Wth 2.2m) at S where a modified causeway (basal Wth 5m; top Wth 2m; H 0.65m) is also present. The inner bank has been modified into a large mound (L 8m; int. H 1.2m; ext. H 3m) at the E side of the entrance. There has been extensive quarrying for stone within the WNW half of the interior. A long irregular depression defined by a low bank which extends through the inner bank of the ringfort at NW may represent a dug out Man-made underground passage. Levelled ringfort is visible today as a circular-shaped cropmark on Digital Globe aerial photography. Compiled by Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien. Date of upload: 05 July 2019