What is recorded here
Killaspuglonane holds a rare double-ringed fort where an inner bank, deep flat fosse and outer ring enclose a sloping chamber nearly forty-five metres across. It stood out enough for surveyors to mark it in 1840 and for Westropp to call it an excellent rath in 1905, yet no causeway or doorway is certain. The completed shape suggests a place made to be entered, defended and remembered, even though the NE gap and broken outer bank now hide the exact route.
In pasture near the top of a gentle rise on a SE-facing slope c. 90m W of a stream. Hachured on the 1840 and 1916 OS 6-inch maps. Noted by Westropp (1905, 360) as ‘an excellent example of a rath, with deep fosse and outer ring’. A subcircular bivallate rath (44.75m NNE-SSW; 40.5m SE-NW) defined by an inner bank (int. H 0.3m; ext. H 0.55-1.35m; Wth 3.6m), a flat-bottomed fosse (Wth 2-3.75m), and an outer bank (Wth 1.4-3.5m; ext. H 0.25-0.6m). The outer bank has been reduced to a scarp (H 0.6m) at the NE. A gap (Wth 3m) in the inner bank at the NE may be an original entrance but no corresponding causeway crosses the fosse. The interior (27.75m NNE-SSW; 26.5m SE-NW) slopes down to the SSE and is slightly higher in the centre.
Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Eve Campbell
Date of upload: 14 August 2023
A fairy fort or earthen ringfort in Killaspuglonane, likely dating to the early medieval period, is characterized by a deep fosse and bank, as noted by early archaeologists. It is associated with local folklore surrounding fairy activity, common in such sites across Ireland.
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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