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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Lackendarragh

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Lackendarragh holds a thirty-eight metre earthen ring where a stream still cuts a deep drain at the northern base. The bank rises half a metre outside, nearly a metre inside, and a sharper scarp replaces the ditch along part of the circuit. A field boundary clips the east and south, perhaps preserving a second rampart, while the interior rises westward to balance the slope. An underground passage marked CO041-03302- remains inside the enclosure. Bowman recorded the site in 1934 as a double-ramparted fort in P. Sheehan's land, with one-third of the outer circuit levelled. The fort is no longer a fairy tale in its shape; it is a made place, still readable in grass, water and earth.
In pasture, on W-facing slope. Roughly circular area (38m N-S) enclosed by earthen bank (int. H 0.8m; ext. H 0.6m) NW->SSW, with external fosse (D 0.4m) to SE; scarp (H 2.7m) elsewhere. To N, stream flows in deep external drain at base of bank. Field boundary (H c. 1.3m) skirts enclosure to E and S, may incorporate remains of second bank; hachured as bank on 1842 and 1904 OS 6-inch maps. Interior raised to W to compensate for hillslope. May be double-ramparted fort (diam. 37yd) recorded by Bowman (1934, 547-8) in P. Sheehan's with one-third of outer circuit levelled (ibid.). Man-made underground passage (CO041-03302-) in interior. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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What survives
Recorded monument

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