What is recorded here

Killegland holds a forty-five metre circular rath where a recut ditch still bites into the level earth. Six figure-of-eight kilns scattered around the enclosure suggest busy hands firing clay or shaping tools long before the football pitch covered part of the boundary. The fairies may have taken the credit later, but the copper needle, carved stones and millstone fragment point to ordinary people living, working and forgetting their own names.

Situated on a fairly level landscape. Archaeological testing (05E1321) by S. Halliday (2007) identified archaeological features (excavations.ie 2006:1496) that were further excavated (06E0782) by the same archaeologist when part of an enclosure was recorded (excavations.ie 2006:1498). It is a circular area (diam. c. 45m) defined by a ditch or fosse (Wth of top 1.7-2.8m; D 1-1.6m) that was recut at least once. The ditch was filled with brown silty or sandy clays, but only the S edge of this enclosure was sampled as it extends outside the development area into a football pitch. An area of metaling (dims 3.5m x 1.2m) extended from the interior over the top fill of the fosse. Artefacts recovered from the fosse include a copper needle, carved stones, and a fragment of a millstone. The monument was probably a rath. (Halliday 2008, 16-17) A subrectangular enclosure (int. dims c. 32m WNW-ESE; c. 16m plus NNE-SSW) defined by a fosse (Wth of top 2.6m; D 0.8-1.8m) is located to the SE, but its centre is also outside the development area to the N. Its ditch has similar fills to that of the circular enclosure, but this is thought to be the earlier enclosure, and another more amorphous enclosure with its centre N of the development area was further W (ibid. 18-19). Six kilns were also excavated in this area. They were situated within the enclosures and outside them. They were usually figure-of eight type, appearing as oval features (dims 2.1-4.1m x 0.84-1.48m; D 0.13-0.35m) with distinct bowls and shallower flues and fire-reddened bases. Their particular use is not yet determined and their relationships with the enclosures are uncertain, but in at least one case the flue of a kiln cuts the outer edge of the fosse of the circular enclosure. (ibid. 21-23) See the attached site plan from Halliday (2008, fig. 7) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 22 December, 2021

A fairy fort or earthen ringfort in Killegland is a likely early-medieval defensive or domestic site, indicated by archaeological excavations that uncovered structural and cultural remains. Local tradition associates such sites with fairy folklore, reflecting their enigmatic and sacred status in Irish cultural memory.

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