What is recorded here

Knockavoarheen holds a large earthen ringfort on a broad hillock, its raised interior measuring nearly twenty-eight metres across and surrounded by a deep flat-bottomed fosse. People called it a fairy fort, perhaps because the rushes now choke the entrance and the outer bank has broken into gaps that admit shadow before light. The earth remains firm enough to show the shape of human hands, even if those hands have long since vanished into the clay.

Just off the summit of a broad hillock and overlooked by higher ground to the N. Hachured on the 1842 and 1920 eds. of the OS 6-inch maps. Listed as ‘Enclosure’ in the RMP (1996). Westropp (1915, 256) noted this ‘larger ring mound’, as did Robinson (1977). A raised subcircular area (dims. 27.4m E–W, 23.6m N–S; H 1.3–1.4m) surrounded by a flat-bottomed fosse (Wth 4–6.4m) and an outer bank (Wth 5–6m; int. H 0.4–0.8m; ext. H 0.5–1m). There is an entrance ramp (Wth 2m) at NE but there is no causeway across the fosse. A gap (Wth 1m) in the outer bank here does not appear to be original. There are several other gaps in the outer bank at the SE (Wth 3.8m), SSE, NW (Wth 4m) and NNE (Wth 2.4m). The interior is overgrown with rushes. Field boundaries, running roughly N-S, are visible immediately to the E and W of monument and a forestry roadway lies to its N. There is an enclosure (CL009-174----) c. 145m to the ENE. Compiled by: Olive Alcock and Conn Herriott Date of upload: 21 October 2021

A fairy fort or earthen ringfort in Knockavoarheen is a circular earthwork likely dating to the early medieval period, used as a defensive or agricultural settlement. It is associated with local folklore surrounding fairy activity, common in such sites across Ireland.

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