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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Killegland

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Killegland holds a hidden circular fort beside the Ashbourne bypass, its ditch and inner chambers waiting beneath the soil. The name suggests people once believed fairies lived there, but the shape and depth point to human hands building a defensible home on a small rise. Traffic still passes within moments of that forgotten chamber, carrying nobody into the dark passages below.
Situated on a rise in a gently undulating landscape, and now located just W of a N-S section of the N2 bypass of Ashbourne. The cropmark of a circular area (diam. c. 25m) defined by a single fosse is visible only on an oblique aerial photograph (CUCAP: BDP 031) from 1970 (Feeley 2001, 52, No. 46). A geophysical survey (02R0051) conducted by GBS Prospection in connection with the N2 bypass of Ashbourne confirms the presence of the enclosure ditch, with a possible entrance at S. Other features are indicated in the interior, including a smaller enclosure, and two small L-shaped features that could be Man-made underground passages. Other features (ME045-037----) were indicated in the surrounding area. (McGowan 2009, 4) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 10 July 2007 Amended: 13 December 2021

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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