What is recorded here

Clearing grass and filling ditches may have shaped the visible fort, but the idea is older: a small world drawn around itself. The ring still stands in open pasture, large enough to hold a household and strange enough to invite fairy belief.

In level pasture. Roughly circular area (41m E-W; 33m N-S) enclosed by earthen bank (int. H 1.1m; ext. H 2m); external fosse (max. D 1m). Inner face of bank low N->ESE with external face 2.2m high; some stone facing noted on outer face of bank to ENE. Fosse survives as slight slope down to base of bank W->E; deeper elsewhere. Interior raised; clear of overgrowth. 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

A fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Johnstown West is a roughly circular early-medieval defensive or domestic site, characterized by an earthen bank and external fosse. Local tradition associates such sites with fairy folklore, and they were often avoided due to beliefs in supernatural inhabitants.

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