What is recorded here

Inch East holds an eighteen-metre earthen ring beside Castlemaine Harbour, where a shallow ditch and a two-metre bank still mark the footprint of a home that has stopped answering human questions. People later called it a fairy fort, perhaps because the sea fog swallowed the people and left the shape behind. The stone wall now blocking the south-east entrance does not strengthen the circle so much as silence it, turning a lived doorway into a closed fist.

Internal diam. 18.8m This circular univallate rath is situated in rough, wet pastureland on the level coastal strip that borders the N side of Castlemaine Harbour. A shallow fosse can be traced around most of the circumference. It is 3.4m wide and up to .45m deep. The bank survives to a maximum height of 1.8m internally and 2m externally. A short section of the bank in the SE quadrant has been replaced by a stone wall, and on either side of this the bank is revetted internally with drystone masonry. This stonework is probably secondary, and, as the bank is otherwise continuous, the stone wall probably blocks the original entrance. The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 461. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 7 August 2013

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