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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Knockearagh

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Knockearagh holds a fifty-eight-metre earthen ring on a sunny slope, facing Mangerton Mountain through centuries of pasture and forgetfulness. Cattle still break its eastern bank while cultivation ridges and a stony hut shadow suggest people once lived inside what legends now call a fairy fort. The seam between human memory and fantasy becomes thin when ordinary fields contain children's graves and hidden passages beneath their soil.
In pasture, on a S-facing slope with views SW to Mangerton Mountain. A raised circular area (58m NE-SW; 57m NW-SE) defined by an earthen bank (Wth 5.3m; int. H 1.1m; ext. H 1.24m) best preserved along the E arc. A N-S field boundary truncates the exterior of the bank at W, and an E-W field boundary abuts it at SSW. A break (Wth 5.05m) at SE may indicate the entrance. An open drain has recently been cut along the external base of the bank NNW-E. Cattle breaks occur at NE (Wth 1.2m) and at NNW (Wth 1.3m). The interior generally slopes down to the S and SW. The remains of cultivation ridges are evident in the SW quadrant. An irregular raised stony area, mainly in the S quadrant, may be the remains of a hut site (KE067-007001-). A possible children's burial ground (KE067-007002-) and a possible Man-made underground passage (KE067-007003-) are in the rath. The rath is partially obscured by trees and bushes. Compiled by: Elizabeth Byrne, Ursula Egan and Sheila Ronan, Archaeological Survey Unit, University College, Cork. Date of upload: 31 January 2011

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What survives
Recorded monument

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